Benthos

Photos: M. Fernandez-Mendez (left) and A. Boetius/Alfred Wegener Institute (right); Seija Hällfors/ Finnish Environment Institute SYKE (inset microscopic view of the diatom Melosira arctica)

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7. 

Change in ecosystem structure that may result from reduction of sea ice and related temperature changes: an illustration based on the Chukchi Sea food web 

Adapted from Hopcroft et al. 2008 [95], based on Carroll and Carroll 2003 [98] 

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7.

95. Hopcroft, R., Bluhm, B., and Gradinger, R. (eds). 2008. Arctic Ocean synthesis: Analysis of climate change impacts in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas with strategies for future research. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Alaska, and North Pacific Research Board, Fairbanks, Alaska.

98. Carroll, M.L., and Carroll, J. 2003. The Arctic seas. In Biogeochemistry of Marine Systems. Edited by Black, K.D., and Shimmield, G.B. CRC Press, Boca Raton, US. pp. 127-156.

There are about 4,500 known species of multi-cellular benthic invertebrates, with highest diversity in the shelf areas, and about 160 to 210 species of seaweeds (macroalgae).

Based on Josefson et al. 2013 [73] and Bluhm et al. 2011 [63]
Photo: Benthic samples from the Chukchi Sea, 2004–2005 Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (photo by B. Bluhm/UAF/RUSALCA 2004)

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7.

The lines are “isolines”, meaning they connect areas with the same value of benthic biomass (left column) or ice concentration (right column). They are displayed the same way a topographic map shows elevation contours. For example, the area enclosed by the isoline labeled 500 in the map in the lower left hand corner has a biomass of 500 g/m2 or more. The zones with average long durations of 20% ice cover (right column) are polynyas and marginal ice zones associated with land-fast ice. Statistical analysis reveals that the zones of high biomass are significantly associated with the zones of long duration of ice-edge conditions.

Figure prepared for this report by S. Denisenko, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, based on archived data from 950 stations from scientific expeditions conducted 1932–1935, 1968–1970, 1975–1986 and 1993–1995. Ice concentration data from Schlitzer 2012 [173], calculated as 1960–1990 averages

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7.

The photographs represent benthic communities in the two fjords before and after abrupt ecosystem changes characterized by a shift from rock-encrusting types of algae to taller filamentous (C) and leaf-like (D) forms of seaweed. Areas within the white lines are covered by these seaweeds. The invertebrate communities changed at the same time. In Kongsfjord, for example, the sea anemones that were common before this regime shift (visible in A) declined rapidly and sea urchins increased.
From Kortsch et al. 2012 [172]

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) 2013.

Figure 8.11. Interannual changes in the climatic index of the Barents Sea (1), with running mean curve (2), reflecting the cumulative variability of major indicators of climate (such as sea and air temperature and ice coverage), with warm periods marked in red and cold periods in blue). The periods of main quantitative benthos surveys are shown as red ellipses in the chart (modified from Anisimova et al. 2011).

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

www.caff.is 

The data can be downloaded freely.

Users are requested to reference it source.

Meltofte, H. (ed.) 2013. Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends in Arctic biodiversity. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyri.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) 2013.

Figure 8.10. Metazoan meiofauna densities along the bathymetric HAUSGARTEN transect from 2000 to 2004 (redrawn from Hoste et al. 2007).

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

www.caff.is 

The data can be downloaded freely.

Users are requested to reference it source.

Meltofte, H. (ed.) 2013. Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends in Arctic biodiversity. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyri.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) 2013.

Figure 8.1. Map of the Arctic Ocean with superimposed stacked bars representing species numbers of macro zoobenthos from different shelf sea areas: Crustacea+Mollusca+Echinodermata (blue) and Annelida (black). Compiled by Piepenburg et al. (2011).

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

www.caff.is 

The data can be downloaded freely.

Users are requested to reference it source.

Meltofte, H. (ed.) 2013. Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends in Arctic biodiversity. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyri.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) 2013.

Figure 8.2. Map of the Arctic Ocean showing the distribution of species richness of Bryozoa for different shelf seas along the Eurasian continental shelf. 

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

www.caff.is 

The data can be downloaded freely.

Users are requested to reference it source.

Meltofte, H. (ed.) 2013. Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends in Arctic biodiversity. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyri.