Unraveling the effects of environmental drivers and spatial structure on benthic species distribution patterns in Eurasian-Arctic seas (Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas).

Hansen, Miriam L. S., Piepenburg, Dieter, Pantiukhin, Dmitrii and Kraan, Casper (2020) Unraveling the effects of environmental drivers and spatial structure on benthic species distribution patterns in Eurasian-Arctic seas (Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas). Open Access Polar Biology, 43 (11). pp. 1693-1705. DOI 10.1007/s00300-020-02737-9.

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Abstract

In times of accelerating climate change, species are challenged to respond to rapidly shifting environmental settings. Yet, faunal distribution and composition are still scarcely known for remote and little explored seas, where observations are limited in number and mostly refer to local scales. Here, we present the first comprehensive study on Eurasian-Arctic macrobenthos that aims to unravel the relative influence of distinct spatial scales and environmental factors in determining their large-scale distribution and composition patterns. To consider the spatial structure of benthic distribution patterns in response to environmental forcing, we applied Moran’s eigenvector mapping (MEM) on a large dataset of 341 samples from the Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas taken between 1991 and 2014, with a total of 403 macrobenthic taxa (species or genera) that were present in ≥ 10 samples. MEM analysis revealed three spatial scales describing patterns within or beyond single seas (broad: ≥ 400 km, meso: 100–400 km, and small: ≤ 100 km). Each scale is associated with a characteristic benthic fauna and environmental drivers (broad: apparent oxygen utilization and phosphate, meso: distance-to-shoreline and temperature, small: organic carbon flux and distance-to-shoreline). Our results suggest that different environmental factors determine the variation of Eurasian-Arctic benthic community composition within the spatial scales considered and highlight the importance of considering the diverse spatial structure of species communities in marine ecosystems. This multiple-scale approach facilitates an enhanced understanding of the impact of climate-driven environmental changes that is necessary for developing appropriate management strategies for the conservation and sustainable utilization of Arctic marine systems.

Document Type: Article
Keywords: Multivariate community analysis · Environmental factors · Macrobenthos · Spatial structure · Moran’s eigenvector mapping · Eurasian-Arctic
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: No
Publisher: Springer
Projects: CATS
Date Deposited: 23 Jun 2021 12:12
Last Modified: 07 Apr 2022 17:04
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52950

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