Patterns in the distribution and abundance of sea anemones off Dumont d’Urville Station, Antarctica

Knowledge of ecological interactions is integral for informed management, especially in the rapidly changing Antarctic marine ecosystem. Nonetheless, even basic ecological relationships are unknown for most benthic species, including conspicuous predatory species such as sea anemones. The aim of thi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar biology 2018-10, Vol.41 (10), p.1923-1935
Main Authors: Watson, Leslie A., Stark, Jonathan S., Johnstone, Glenn J., Wapstra, Erik, Miller, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Analysis
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Cnidaria
Community composition
Distribution
Ecological monitoring
Ecology
Ecosystem disturbance
Global temperature changes
Habitats
Herbivores
Interactions
Invertebrates
Life Sciences
Marine ecosystems
Marine invertebrates
Microbiology
Multivariate analysis
Ocean bottom
Ocean floor
Oceanography
Original Paper
Plant Sciences
Predators
Prey
Remotely operated vehicles
Substrates
Underwater vehicles
Unmanned vehicles
Vulnerability
Zoology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Knowledge of ecological interactions is integral for informed management, especially in the rapidly changing Antarctic marine ecosystem. Nonetheless, even basic ecological relationships are unknown for most benthic species, including conspicuous predatory species such as sea anemones. The aim of this study is to understand the ecology of sea anemones in the Terre Adélie region. Using video footage collected by remote operated vehicle (ROV), we examined sea anemone distribution and abundance in relation to predator and prey abundance, presence of other taxa and habitat structure. The ROV was deployed over ten different transects with depths ranging from 32 to 251 m. A total of 332 sea anemones were observed across 6.6 km 2 of seabed surveyed. We compared sea anemone abundance with habitat type and substrate attachment. Multivariate analysis in PRIMER was used to examine community composition. Sea anemone density was not significantly associated with habitat types. However, sea anemones were associated with the biogenic substrates, ascidians and bryozoans. This association suggests a potential future vulnerability for Antarctic sea anemones if bryozoan and ascidian distributions are impacted by climate change-associated ecosystem disturbances.
ISSN:0722-4060
1432-2056
DOI:10.1007/s00300-018-2332-3