Deep-Pelagic (0-3000m) Fish Assemblage Structure Over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Area of the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone

• Main Author: Cook, April B.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: W&M ScholarWorks 2011
• Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries; Marine Biology; Oceanography; Mid-Atlantic Ridge; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617899; https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3029&context=etd

Only a miniscule fraction of the world’s largest volume of living space, the ocean’s mid-water biome, has ever been sampled. As part of the International Census of Marine Life field project Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems (MAR-ECO), a discrete-depth trawling survey was conducted in 2009 aboard the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow to examine the pelagic faunal assemblage structure and distribution over the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ) of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This is the first MAR-ECO project aimed specifically at describing diel vertical migration as a distributional phenomenon. Discrete-depth sampling from 0-3000 m was conducted during both day and night in similar locations using a Norwegian “Krill” trawl with five codends that were opened and closed via a pre-programmed timer. Seventy-five species of fish were collected, with a maximum diversity and biomass observed between depths of 700-1900 m. An incremental gradient in sea surface temperature and underlying watermasses, from northwest of the CGFZ zone to the southeast, was mirrored by a similar gradient in ichthyofaunal diversity. Using multivariate analyses, eight deep-pelagic fish assemblages were identified, with depth as the overwhelming discriminatory variable. Strong diel vertical migration (DVM) of the mesopelagic fauna was a prevalent feature of the study area, though the numerically dominant fish, Cyclothone microdon (Gonostomatidae), exhibited a broad (0-3000 m) vertical distribution and did not appear to migrate on a diel basis. In all, 3 patterns of vertical distribution were observed in the study area: a) DVM of mesopelagic, and possibly bathypelagic, taxa; b) broad vertical distribution spanning meso- and bathypelagic depths; and c) discrete vertical distribution patterns. Overall species composition and rank order of abundance of fish species agreed with two previous expeditions to the CGFZ (1982-83 and 2004), suggesting some stability in the ichthyofaunal composition of the study area, at least in the summer. Frequent captures of putative bathypelagic fishes, shrimps, and squid in the epipelagic zone (0-200 m) were confirmed. The results of this expedition reveal distributional patterns unlike those previously reported for open ocean ecosystems, with the implication of increased transfer efficiency of surface production to great depths in the mid-North Atlantic.