Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic
Loki’s Castle was the first black smoker hydrothermal vent field to be discovered on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR), and is known to host a specialized and highly endemic fauna. Despite being studied since its discovery in 2008 there are still knowledge gaps, especially regarding the diversity an...
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2021
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ftunivbergen:oai:bora.uib.no:11250/2779706 2023-05-15T15:16:55+02:00 Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic Hamstad, Ida Marie 2021-09-20T22:00:04Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2779706 eng eng The University of Bergen https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2779706 Copyright the Author. All rights reserved 751999 Master thesis 2021 ftunivbergen 2023-03-14T17:39:40Z Loki’s Castle was the first black smoker hydrothermal vent field to be discovered on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR), and is known to host a specialized and highly endemic fauna. Despite being studied since its discovery in 2008 there are still knowledge gaps, especially regarding the diversity and spatial distribution of the faunal community. The increasing interest in opening areas at the AMOR to deep sea mining makes it crucial to gather baseline data from the sites that could be affected, including Loki’s Castle. The purpose of this thesis was to characterize the abundance, diversity and spatial distribution of the benthic megafauna community at Loki’s Castle and to investigate the influence of abiotic factors on this community. To achieve this, an ortophotomosaic created from seafloor images of the area was used to annotate and quantify all visible fauna. These observations were analyzed together with pre-existing data of abiotic parameters (temperature and heat flux) and topographic variables (slope, aspect and roughness) from the vent field, using a multivariate analytical framework. A total of 14743 observations were recorded, and 20 morphospecies belonging to eight different phyla were identified. There were statistically significant differences between diffuse venting areas, focused venting areas and peripheral areas in density, diversity and morphospecies distribution. The diffuse venting site called the Barite field supports a diverse and dense community of organisms. Some of these, such as the tubeworm Sclerolinum contortum, are dependent on symbiosis with chemosynthetic bacteria, while others are likely influenced by a facilitating cascade where S. contortum is the primary foundation species. Temperature and slope were found to significantly influence the spatial distribution of most of the prominent morphospecies, total abundance and species richness. However, most of the species distributions could not be explained by temperature and slope, and it is likely that other biological and abiotic ... Master Thesis Arctic University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) Arctic |
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Open Polar |
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University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) |
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ftunivbergen |
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English |
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751999 |
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751999 Hamstad, Ida Marie Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
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751999 |
description |
Loki’s Castle was the first black smoker hydrothermal vent field to be discovered on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR), and is known to host a specialized and highly endemic fauna. Despite being studied since its discovery in 2008 there are still knowledge gaps, especially regarding the diversity and spatial distribution of the faunal community. The increasing interest in opening areas at the AMOR to deep sea mining makes it crucial to gather baseline data from the sites that could be affected, including Loki’s Castle. The purpose of this thesis was to characterize the abundance, diversity and spatial distribution of the benthic megafauna community at Loki’s Castle and to investigate the influence of abiotic factors on this community. To achieve this, an ortophotomosaic created from seafloor images of the area was used to annotate and quantify all visible fauna. These observations were analyzed together with pre-existing data of abiotic parameters (temperature and heat flux) and topographic variables (slope, aspect and roughness) from the vent field, using a multivariate analytical framework. A total of 14743 observations were recorded, and 20 morphospecies belonging to eight different phyla were identified. There were statistically significant differences between diffuse venting areas, focused venting areas and peripheral areas in density, diversity and morphospecies distribution. The diffuse venting site called the Barite field supports a diverse and dense community of organisms. Some of these, such as the tubeworm Sclerolinum contortum, are dependent on symbiosis with chemosynthetic bacteria, while others are likely influenced by a facilitating cascade where S. contortum is the primary foundation species. Temperature and slope were found to significantly influence the spatial distribution of most of the prominent morphospecies, total abundance and species richness. However, most of the species distributions could not be explained by temperature and slope, and it is likely that other biological and abiotic ... |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Hamstad, Ida Marie |
author_facet |
Hamstad, Ida Marie |
author_sort |
Hamstad, Ida Marie |
title |
Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
title_short |
Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
title_full |
Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
title_fullStr |
Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characterization of benthic communities at Loki’s Castle vent field using a photomosaic |
title_sort |
characterization of benthic communities at loki’s castle vent field using a photomosaic |
publisher |
The University of Bergen |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2779706 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2779706 |
op_rights |
Copyright the Author. All rights reserved |
_version_ |
1766347215087861760 |