Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope
Diversity and community patterns of macro- and megafauna were compared on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope. Faunal sampling collected 247 taxa from 48 stations with box core and trawl gear over the summers of 2009–2011 between 50 and 1,000 m in depth. Of the 80 macrofaunal and 167 megafaunal ta...
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ftuvicpubl:oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/13125 2023-05-15T15:22:38+02:00 Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope Nephin, Jessica Juniper, S. Kim Archambault, P. 2014 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13125 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 en eng PLOS ONE Nephin, J., Juniper, S.K., & Archambault, P. (2014). Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope. PLos ONE, 9(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13125 Article 2014 ftuvicpubl https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 2022-05-19T06:12:27Z Diversity and community patterns of macro- and megafauna were compared on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope. Faunal sampling collected 247 taxa from 48 stations with box core and trawl gear over the summers of 2009–2011 between 50 and 1,000 m in depth. Of the 80 macrofaunal and 167 megafaunal taxa, 23% were uniques, present at only one station. Rare taxa were found to increase proportional to total taxa richness and differ between the shelf (v 100 m) where they tended to be sparse and the slope where they were relatively abundant. The macrofauna principally comprised polychaetes with nephtyid polychaetes dominant on the shelf and maldanid polychaetes (up to 92% in relative abundance/station) dominant on the slope. The megafauna principally comprised echinoderms with Ophiocten sp. (up to 90% in relative abundance/station) dominant on the shelf and Ophiopleura sp. dominant on the slope. Macro- and megafauna had divergent patterns of abundance, taxa richness (a diversity) and b diversity. A greater degree of macrofaunal than megafaunal variation in abundance, richness and b diversity was explained by confounding factors: location (east-west), sampling year and the timing of sampling with respect to sea-ice conditions. Change in megafaunal abundance, richness and b diversity was greatest across the depth gradient, with total abundance and richness elevated on the shelf compared to the slope. We conclude that megafaunal slope taxa were differentiated from shelf taxa, as faunal replacement not nestedness appears to be the main driver of megafaunal b diversity across the depth gradient. This work was supported by ArcticNet - a Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada (http://www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca/) and by the Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) (http://chone.marinebiodiversity.ca/). This study was also supported through a research collaboration between the Amundsen program, BP Exploration Operating Company Limited and Imperial Oil. BP and Imperial Oil had a role in the location of sampling only, as it ... Article in Journal/Newspaper ArcticNet Sea ice University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace Beaufort Shelf ENVELOPE(-142.500,-142.500,70.000,70.000) Canada PLoS ONE 9 7 e101556 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftuvicpubl |
language |
English |
description |
Diversity and community patterns of macro- and megafauna were compared on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope. Faunal sampling collected 247 taxa from 48 stations with box core and trawl gear over the summers of 2009–2011 between 50 and 1,000 m in depth. Of the 80 macrofaunal and 167 megafaunal taxa, 23% were uniques, present at only one station. Rare taxa were found to increase proportional to total taxa richness and differ between the shelf (v 100 m) where they tended to be sparse and the slope where they were relatively abundant. The macrofauna principally comprised polychaetes with nephtyid polychaetes dominant on the shelf and maldanid polychaetes (up to 92% in relative abundance/station) dominant on the slope. The megafauna principally comprised echinoderms with Ophiocten sp. (up to 90% in relative abundance/station) dominant on the shelf and Ophiopleura sp. dominant on the slope. Macro- and megafauna had divergent patterns of abundance, taxa richness (a diversity) and b diversity. A greater degree of macrofaunal than megafaunal variation in abundance, richness and b diversity was explained by confounding factors: location (east-west), sampling year and the timing of sampling with respect to sea-ice conditions. Change in megafaunal abundance, richness and b diversity was greatest across the depth gradient, with total abundance and richness elevated on the shelf compared to the slope. We conclude that megafaunal slope taxa were differentiated from shelf taxa, as faunal replacement not nestedness appears to be the main driver of megafaunal b diversity across the depth gradient. This work was supported by ArcticNet - a Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada (http://www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca/) and by the Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) (http://chone.marinebiodiversity.ca/). This study was also supported through a research collaboration between the Amundsen program, BP Exploration Operating Company Limited and Imperial Oil. BP and Imperial Oil had a role in the location of sampling only, as it ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nephin, Jessica Juniper, S. Kim Archambault, P. |
spellingShingle |
Nephin, Jessica Juniper, S. Kim Archambault, P. Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
author_facet |
Nephin, Jessica Juniper, S. Kim Archambault, P. |
author_sort |
Nephin, Jessica |
title |
Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
title_short |
Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
title_full |
Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
title_fullStr |
Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope |
title_sort |
diversity, abundance and community structure of benthic macro- and megafauna on the beaufort shelf and slope |
publisher |
PLOS ONE |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13125 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-142.500,-142.500,70.000,70.000) |
geographic |
Beaufort Shelf Canada |
geographic_facet |
Beaufort Shelf Canada |
genre |
ArcticNet Sea ice |
genre_facet |
ArcticNet Sea ice |
op_relation |
Nephin, J., Juniper, S.K., & Archambault, P. (2014). Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf and Slope. PLos ONE, 9(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13125 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101556 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e101556 |
_version_ |
1766353270613213184 |