DRIVERS OF EPIBENTHIC BIODIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE IN BARROW CANYON, CHUKCHI SEA UTILIZING DROP CAMERA VIDEO DATA

• Main Author: Pfaff, Andrea Ruth
• Other Authors: Grebmeier, Jacqueline M, Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences, Digital Repository at the University of Maryland, University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Biology; Environmental science; Chukchi Sea; Drop Camera Video System; Epibenthic Macrofauna; Pacific Arctic; Underwater Imagery; Arctic; Pacific; Barrow Canyon; Chukchi
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1903/29642; https://doi.org/10.13016/hy9w-3vuq

In the Northeastern Chukchi Sea’s Barrow Canyon, modeling indicates that converging currents rapidly downwell high volumes of labile carbon creating a benthic biological hotspot. Utilizing a Drop Camera Video System, this thesis analyzes the epibenthic population across upper Barrow Canyon along the Distributed Biological Observatory transect DBO5. Results show that overall abundance of epibenthic fauna is highly correlated with depth while diversity is correlated with water mass variables such as bottom water temperature, salinity, nutrient concentrations, current speeds, and sediment grain size. Higher taxonomic diversity is found along the inshore slope of Barrow Canyon and correlated with conditions associated with the swifter inshore Alaskan Coastal Water. Taken together these data show that while particulate food and associated epibenthic abundance is highest in the Canyon’s trough, there is a zonation of organisms between the inshore and offshore slope with the inshore slope supporting a higher diversity and predominantly suspension feeding organisms.