Affiliation:
1. Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MMBI RAS), 183010 Murmansk, Russia
Abstract
The continental shelf of the northeastern Barents Sea is presently experiencing a weak influx of Atlantic water from the west. In recent times, warming in Arctic regions has led to an increase in extended ice-free periods in this area, instead of significantly elevating water temperatures. The implications of this phenomenon on the structure and functioning of benthic communities were investigated during the autumn of 2019 within the Makarov Strait, located in the southwestern part of the St. Anna Trough. The macrozoobenthic communities exhibited a clear connection with the duration of ice-free periods. This variable influenced a vertical carbon flux, which subsequently served as the primary predictor for faunal abundance and diversity, as demonstrated by redundancy and correlation analyses. Two faunal groups were identified, corresponding to short and long open-water periods. Both groups had similar alpha diversity (65 ± 6 and 61 ± 9 species per station) and biomasses (39 ± 13 and 47 ± 13 g m−2) but displayed differing abundances (1140 ± 100 vs. 4070 ± 790 ind. m−2) and other diversity indices. We observed a decline in the proportion of polychaetes, accompanied by an increase in the proportion and diversity of bivalves, as well as a rise in the abundance of infaunal species, sub-surface deposit feeders, and mobile suspension feeders, in response to the increasing vertical carbon flux. The potential increase in anthropogenic pressures related to oil development in the northeastern Barents Sea highlights the importance of our study for conservation and monitoring efforts in the region.
Funder
Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation
Subject
General Veterinary,Animal Science and Zoology
Reference85 articles.
1. Thomas, D.N. (2021). Arctic Ecology, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2. Food webs and carbon flux in the Barents Sea;Wassmann;Prog. Oceanogr.,2006
3. Ecology and distribution of red king crab larvae in the Barents Sea: A review;Dvoretsky;Water,2022
4. Jakobsen, T., and Ozhigin, V.K. (2011). The Barents Sea: Ecosystem, Resources, Management: Half a Century of Russian-Norwegian Co-Operation, Tapir Academic Press.
5. Benthic macrofauna and productivity regimes in the Barents Sea—Ecological implications in a changing Arctic;Cochrane;J. Sea Res.,2009
Cited by
5 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献