Authors / CoAuthors
Post, A.L. | Domack, E. | Leventer, A.
Abstract
In early 2014 the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer conducted the first ever multidisciplinary study of the Sabrina Coast continental shelf. This area is remote and generally inaccessible, but biological significance is recognised by its initial inclusion within the proposed East Antarctic representative system of Marine Protected Areas. The datasets collected during this voyage allow analysis of the physical habitat parameters and benthic biota through interpretation of bottom camera images, high resolution multibeam bathymetry, sediment properties and oceanographic measurements, with satellite observations of sea ice also providing important environmental context. The suite of environmental and biological datasets provides evidence for a diverse, relatively high biomass continental shelf community that is strongly structured by the physical environment. The distribution of benthic taxa is most closely related ( = 0.592) to seafloor bathymetry, substrate type, latitude and the occurrence of phytodetritus. Phytodetritus accumulation is associated with muddy/sandy substrates, indicating long term sediment focussing in these areas, consistent with evidence of bottom recirculation features. These softer substrates contain relatively high abundances of mobile holothurians and amphipods. Scattered occurrence of dropstones creates habitat heterogeneity at fine-scales. Harder substrates have high abundances of brachiopods, bryozoans, polychaete tubeworms, a range of massive and encrusting sponges and sea whips. Several taxa are found only on areas of hard substrate, yet have a broad distribution across the sites, indicating that the density of dropstones is sufficient for most sessile invertebrates to disperse across the region. The occurrence of dropstones is associated with significant increases in taxa diversity, abundance and percent biological cover, enhancing the overall diversity and biomass of this ecosystem. This study illustrates how multidisciplinary studies can inform understanding of the drivers of benthic ecosystems, providing important constraints for generating realistic ecosystem models and contributing to our understanding of the sensitivity of this community to environmental change.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
89875
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- External PublicationAbstract
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Marine Geoscience
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- Published_Internal
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2016-01-01T00:00:00
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biota
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Conference abstract follows analysis of underwater imagery and environmental datasets during 2014-2015 at Geoscience Australia.
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