Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology
Cold-seep benthic communities in the Arctic exist at the nexus of two extreme environments; one reflecting the harsh physical extremes of the Arctic environment and another reflecting the chemical extremes and strong environmental gradients associated with seafloor seepage of methane and toxic sulfi...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18627 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/18627 2023-05-15T14:22:49+02:00 Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology Åström, Emmelie Sen, Arunima Carroll, Michael Leslie Carroll, JoLynn 2020-05-21 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18627 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 eng eng Frontiers Media Frontiers in Marine Science Norges forskningsråd: 228107 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/RCN/PETROSENTR/228107/Norway/Research Centre for Arctic Petroleum Exploration/ARCEx/ Åström EKL, Sen A, Carroll M, Carroll J. Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2020;7 FRIDAID 1813176 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 2296-7745 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18627 openAccess Copyright 2020 The Author(s) VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2020 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 2021-06-25T17:57:29Z Cold-seep benthic communities in the Arctic exist at the nexus of two extreme environments; one reflecting the harsh physical extremes of the Arctic environment and another reflecting the chemical extremes and strong environmental gradients associated with seafloor seepage of methane and toxic sulfide-enriched sediments. Recent ecological investigations of cold seeps at numerous locations on the margins of the Arctic Ocean basin reveal that seabed seepage of reduced gas and fluids strongly influence benthic communities and associated marine ecosystems. These Arctic seep communities are mostly different from both conventional Arctic benthic communities as well as cold-seep systems elsewhere in the world. They are characterized by a lack of large specialized chemo-obligate polychetes and mollusks often seen at non-Arctic seeps, but, nonetheless, have substantially higher benthic abundance and biomass compared to adjacent Arctic areas lacking seeps. Arctic seep communities are dominated by expansive tufts or meadows of siboglinid polychetes, which can reach densities up to >3 × 10 5 ind.m –2 . The enhanced autochthonous chemosynthetic production, combined with reef-like structures from methane-derived authigenic carbonates, provides a rich and complex local habitat that results in aggregations of non-seep specialized fauna from multiple trophic levels, including several commercial species. Cold seeps are far more widespread in the Arctic than thought even a few years ago. They exhibit in situ benthic chemosynthetic production cycles that operate on different spatial and temporal cycles than the sunlight-driven counterpart of photosynthetic production in the ocean’s surface. These systems can act as a spatio-temporal bridge for benthic communities and associated ecosystems that may otherwise suffer from a lack of consistency in food quality from the surface ocean during seasons of low production. As climate change impacts accelerate in Arctic marginal seas, photosynthetic primary production cycles are being modified, including in terms of changes in the timing, magnitude, and quality of photosynthetic carbon, whose delivery to the seabed fuels benthic communities. Furthermore, an increased northward expansion of species is expected as a consequence of warming seas. This may have implications for dispersal and evolution of both chemosymbiotic species as well as for background taxa in the entire realm of the Arctic Ocean basin and fringing seas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Arctic Ocean Frontiers in Marine Science 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400 Åström, Emmelie Sen, Arunima Carroll, Michael Leslie Carroll, JoLynn Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
topic_facet |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400 |
description |
Cold-seep benthic communities in the Arctic exist at the nexus of two extreme environments; one reflecting the harsh physical extremes of the Arctic environment and another reflecting the chemical extremes and strong environmental gradients associated with seafloor seepage of methane and toxic sulfide-enriched sediments. Recent ecological investigations of cold seeps at numerous locations on the margins of the Arctic Ocean basin reveal that seabed seepage of reduced gas and fluids strongly influence benthic communities and associated marine ecosystems. These Arctic seep communities are mostly different from both conventional Arctic benthic communities as well as cold-seep systems elsewhere in the world. They are characterized by a lack of large specialized chemo-obligate polychetes and mollusks often seen at non-Arctic seeps, but, nonetheless, have substantially higher benthic abundance and biomass compared to adjacent Arctic areas lacking seeps. Arctic seep communities are dominated by expansive tufts or meadows of siboglinid polychetes, which can reach densities up to >3 × 10 5 ind.m –2 . The enhanced autochthonous chemosynthetic production, combined with reef-like structures from methane-derived authigenic carbonates, provides a rich and complex local habitat that results in aggregations of non-seep specialized fauna from multiple trophic levels, including several commercial species. Cold seeps are far more widespread in the Arctic than thought even a few years ago. They exhibit in situ benthic chemosynthetic production cycles that operate on different spatial and temporal cycles than the sunlight-driven counterpart of photosynthetic production in the ocean’s surface. These systems can act as a spatio-temporal bridge for benthic communities and associated ecosystems that may otherwise suffer from a lack of consistency in food quality from the surface ocean during seasons of low production. As climate change impacts accelerate in Arctic marginal seas, photosynthetic primary production cycles are being modified, including in terms of changes in the timing, magnitude, and quality of photosynthetic carbon, whose delivery to the seabed fuels benthic communities. Furthermore, an increased northward expansion of species is expected as a consequence of warming seas. This may have implications for dispersal and evolution of both chemosymbiotic species as well as for background taxa in the entire realm of the Arctic Ocean basin and fringing seas. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Åström, Emmelie Sen, Arunima Carroll, Michael Leslie Carroll, JoLynn |
author_facet |
Åström, Emmelie Sen, Arunima Carroll, Michael Leslie Carroll, JoLynn |
author_sort |
Åström, Emmelie |
title |
Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
title_short |
Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
title_full |
Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
title_fullStr |
Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology |
title_sort |
cold seeps in a warming arctic: insights for benthic ecology |
publisher |
Frontiers Media |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18627 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change |
op_relation |
Frontiers in Marine Science Norges forskningsråd: 228107 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/RCN/PETROSENTR/228107/Norway/Research Centre for Arctic Petroleum Exploration/ARCEx/ Åström EKL, Sen A, Carroll M, Carroll J. Cold Seeps in a Warming Arctic: Insights for Benthic Ecology. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2020;7 FRIDAID 1813176 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 2296-7745 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18627 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2020 The Author(s) |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00244 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
7 |
_version_ |
1766295340463423488 |