Macroepibenthic communities at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, an ecological survey at different spatial scales.

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Gutt, Julian, Alvaro, M. C., Barco, A., Böhmer, A., Bracher, A., David, Bruno, de Ridder, Chantal, Dorschel, B., Eléaume, Marc, Janussen, Dorte, Kersken, D., López-González, Pablo J., Martínez-Baraldés, I., Schröder, M., Segelken-Voigt, A., Teixidó, N.
• Other Authors: Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA), Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV), Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa (UniGe), Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), Institute of Environmental Physics Bremen (IUP), University of Bremen, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB ), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Sektion Marine Evertebraten I, Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Biodiversidad y Ecología de Invertebrados Marinos, Departamento de Fisiología y Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, OFFIS, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), Institute of Marine Sciences / Institut de Ciències del Mar Barcelona (ICM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Madrid (CSIC), Financial support from the SCAR biology programme ‘Antarctic Thresholds—Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation’( AnT-ERA) through a post-expedition workshop held in Dijon, France, in 2014; from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the project JA-1063/17-1; from the Actions thématiques du Muséum ‘Emergences’ of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France; and from the Institut polaire français Paul Emile Victor (IPEV).
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Benthic habitats; Ecoregions; Bottom topography; Canyon systems; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Ecosystems; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Weddell Sea; Drake Passage; South Shetland Islands; Bransfield Strait; Weddell; Antarc*; Polar Biology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01310185; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1797-6

21 pages International audience The Southern Ocean ecosystem at the Antarctic Peninsula has steep natural environmental gradients, e.g. in terms of water masses and ice cover, and experiences regional above global average climate change. An ecological macroepibenthic survey was conducted in three ecoregions in the north-western Weddell Sea, on the continental shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Bransfield Strait and on the shelf of the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage, defined by their environmental envelop. The aim was to improve the so far poor knowledge of the structure of this component of the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its ecological driving forces. It can also provide a baseline to assess the impact of ongoing climate change to the benthic diversity, functioning and ecosystem services. Different intermediate-scaled topographic features such as canyon systems including the corresponding topographically defined habitats ‘bank’, ‘upper slope’, ‘slope’ and ‘canyon/deep’ were sampled. In addition, the physical and biological environmental factors such as sea-ice cover, chlorophyll-a concentration, small-scale bottom topography and water masses were analysed. Catches by Agassiz trawl showed high among-station variability in biomass of 96 higher systematic groups including ecological key taxa. Large-scale patterns separating the three ecoregions from each other could be correlated with the two environmental factors, sea-ice and depth. Attribution to habitats only poorly explained benthic composition, and small-scale bottom topography did not explain such patterns at all. The large-scale factors, sea-ice and depth, might have caused large-scale differences in pelagic benthic coupling, whilst small-scale variability, also affecting larger scales, seemed to be predominantly driven by unknown physical drivers or biological interactions.