Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf
Epibenthic organisms are a critical component of the marine environment, functioning as ecosystem engineers, habitat and food for other organisms. Our knowledge of the diversity, complexity and sensitivities of these habitats is limited, particularly at higher latitudes and greater depths. The West...
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:1470446 2023-12-24T10:17:04+01:00 Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf Yesson, C Simon, P Chemshirova, I Gorham, T Turner, CJ Hammeken Arboe, N Blicher, ME Kemp, KM 2015-08-05 text https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/7/YessonEtAl_PolarBiology_20150723_Accepted.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/ eng eng https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/7/YessonEtAl_PolarBiology_20150723_Accepted.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/ open Polar Biology , 38 (12) pp. 2085-2096. (2015) West Greenland Epibenthic communities Continental shelf Hard substrate Soft substrate Benthic invertebrates Article 2015 ftucl 2023-11-27T13:07:35Z Epibenthic organisms are a critical component of the marine environment, functioning as ecosystem engineers, habitat and food for other organisms. Our knowledge of the diversity, complexity and sensitivities of these habitats is limited, particularly at higher latitudes and greater depths. The West Coast of Greenland is the site of a commercially important shrimp trawl fishery, but there are few published records describing the benthic community structure of the region. Here we report results from benthic camera surveys conducted at 119 sites, over 3 years, spanning 1400 km of the West Greenland continental shelf (61–725 m depth). A total of 29 classes of epibenthic taxa were identified from the images. There are significant differences of composition and diversity in sites with hard and soft substrate. Hard-substrate communities are relatively diverse with higher abundances and are characterised by sessile, attached groups such as Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, Bryozoa and Porifera. Soft-sediment sites are less diverse and dominated by Polychaeta and have specialist Malacostraca such as the commercially exploited shrimp, Pandalus borealis. Distribution patterns and variation in epibenthic megafauna are related to substrate and the environmental parameters depth, temperature and current speed. This study represents the first quantitative characterisation of epibenthic megafaunal assemblages on the West Greenland continental shelf. These data constitute an important baseline, albeit in a region heavily impacted by trawl fisheries, and demonstrate the utility of benthic photography for examining and monitoring seabed diversity and change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Pandalus borealis Polar Biology University College London: UCL Discovery Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University College London: UCL Discovery |
op_collection_id |
ftucl |
language |
English |
topic |
West Greenland Epibenthic communities Continental shelf Hard substrate Soft substrate Benthic invertebrates |
spellingShingle |
West Greenland Epibenthic communities Continental shelf Hard substrate Soft substrate Benthic invertebrates Yesson, C Simon, P Chemshirova, I Gorham, T Turner, CJ Hammeken Arboe, N Blicher, ME Kemp, KM Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
topic_facet |
West Greenland Epibenthic communities Continental shelf Hard substrate Soft substrate Benthic invertebrates |
description |
Epibenthic organisms are a critical component of the marine environment, functioning as ecosystem engineers, habitat and food for other organisms. Our knowledge of the diversity, complexity and sensitivities of these habitats is limited, particularly at higher latitudes and greater depths. The West Coast of Greenland is the site of a commercially important shrimp trawl fishery, but there are few published records describing the benthic community structure of the region. Here we report results from benthic camera surveys conducted at 119 sites, over 3 years, spanning 1400 km of the West Greenland continental shelf (61–725 m depth). A total of 29 classes of epibenthic taxa were identified from the images. There are significant differences of composition and diversity in sites with hard and soft substrate. Hard-substrate communities are relatively diverse with higher abundances and are characterised by sessile, attached groups such as Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, Bryozoa and Porifera. Soft-sediment sites are less diverse and dominated by Polychaeta and have specialist Malacostraca such as the commercially exploited shrimp, Pandalus borealis. Distribution patterns and variation in epibenthic megafauna are related to substrate and the environmental parameters depth, temperature and current speed. This study represents the first quantitative characterisation of epibenthic megafaunal assemblages on the West Greenland continental shelf. These data constitute an important baseline, albeit in a region heavily impacted by trawl fisheries, and demonstrate the utility of benthic photography for examining and monitoring seabed diversity and change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yesson, C Simon, P Chemshirova, I Gorham, T Turner, CJ Hammeken Arboe, N Blicher, ME Kemp, KM |
author_facet |
Yesson, C Simon, P Chemshirova, I Gorham, T Turner, CJ Hammeken Arboe, N Blicher, ME Kemp, KM |
author_sort |
Yesson, C |
title |
Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
title_short |
Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
title_full |
Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
title_fullStr |
Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
title_full_unstemmed |
Community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the West Greenland Shelf |
title_sort |
community composition of epibenthic megafauna on the west greenland shelf |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/7/YessonEtAl_PolarBiology_20150723_Accepted.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/ |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Pandalus borealis Polar Biology |
genre_facet |
Greenland Pandalus borealis Polar Biology |
op_source |
Polar Biology , 38 (12) pp. 2085-2096. (2015) |
op_relation |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/7/YessonEtAl_PolarBiology_20150723_Accepted.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470446/ |
op_rights |
open |
_version_ |
1786204934626082816 |