Lack of strong seasonality in macrobenthic communities from the northern Barents Sea shelf and Nansen Basin

The Barents Sea has been coined ‘the Arctic hotspot’ of climate change due to the rapidity with which environmental changes are taking place. This transitional domain from Atlantic to Arctic waters is home to highly productive benthic communities. This system strongly fluctuates on a seasonal basis in its sympagic-pelagicbenthic coupling interactions, with potential effects on benthic standing stocks and production. Recent discoveries have questioned the marked seasonality for several high Arctic seafloor communities in coastal waters of Svalbard. Still, the seasonal variability of benthic process in the extensive Barents Sea open shelf remains poorly understood. Therefore, we studied the seasonality of macrofauna communities along a transect in the northwestern Barents Sea comprising two hydrographic domains (Arctic vs. Atlantic Water, across the Polar Front) and three geomorphological settings (shelf, continental slope and abyssal plain). Overall, we did not find strong signs of seasonal variation in taxonomic community structure and functional diversity. However, we found some weak signs of seasonality when examining each station separately, especially at a station close to the Polar Front, with high seasonal fluctuations in abiotic drivers indicating a stronger pelagic-benthic coupling. The lack of seasonality found both at the shelf stations south and north of the Polar Front could be related to organic matter stored in the sediments, reflected in constant levels of total organic carbon in surface sediment across time for all stations. We did observe, as expected, highly spatially structured environmental regimes and macrofauna communities associated to them from shelf to slope and basin locations. Understanding the underlying spatiotemporal mechanisms by which soft-bottom benthic communities are structured along environmental gradients is necessary to predict future impacts of climate change in this area. Our results indicate that short-term climate driven changes in the phenology of pelagic ecosystem components might not be directly reflected in the Arctic benthic system, as seafloor processes seem to be partially decoupled from those in the overlying water

Still Arctic? — The changing Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is one of the Polar regions where current climate and ecosystem change is most pronounced. Here we review the current state of knowledge of the physical, chemical and biological systems in the Barents Sea. Physical conditions in this area are characterized by large seasonal contrasts between partial sea-ice cover in winter and spring versus predominantly open water in summer and autumn. Observations over recent decades show that surface air and ocean temperatures have increased, sea-ice extent has decreased, ocean stratification has weakened, and water chemistry and ecosystem components have changed, the latter in a direction often described as “Atlantification” or “borealisation,” with a less “Arctic” appearance. Temporal and spatial changes in the Barents Sea have a wider relevance, both in the context of large-scale climatic (air, water mass and sea-ice) transport processes and in comparison to other Arctic regions. These observed changes also have socioeconomic consequences, including for fisheries and other human activities. While several of the ongoing changes are monitored and quantified, observation and knowledge gaps remain, especially for winter months when field observations and sample collections are still sparse. Knowledge of the interplay of physical and biogeochemical drivers and ecosystem responses, including complex feedback processes, needs further development.Still Arctic? — The changing Barents SeapublishedVersio

Seasonal dynamics of sea-ice protist and meiofauna in the northwestern Barents Sea

The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice makes understanding sympagic (ice-associated) biology a particularly urgent task. Here we studied the poorly known seasonality of sea-ice protist and meiofauna community composition, abundance and biomass in the bottom 30 cm of sea ice in relation to ice properties and ice drift trajectories in the northwestern Barents Sea. We expected low abundances during the polar night and highest values during spring prior to ice melt. Sea ice conditions and Chlorophyll a concentrations varied strongly seasonally, while particulate organic carbon concentrations were fairly stable throughout the seasons. In December to May we sampled growing first-year ice, while in July and August melting older sea ice dominated. Low sea-ice biota abundances in March could be related to the late onset of ice formation and short time period for ice algae and uni- and multicellular grazers to establish themselves. Pennate diatoms, such as Navicula spp. and Nitzschia spp., dominated the bottom ice algal communities and were present during all seasons. Except for May, ciliates, dinoflagellates, particularly of the order Gymnodiales, and small-sized flagellates were co-dominant. Ice meiofauna (here including large ciliates and foraminifers) was comprised mainly of harpacticoid copepods, copepod nauplii, rotifers, large ciliates and occasionally acoels and foraminifers, with dominance of omnivore species throughout the seasons. Large ciliates comprised the most abundant meiofauna taxon at all ice stations and seasons (50–90 %) but did not necessarily dominate the biomass. While ice melt might have released and reduced ice algal biomass in July, meiofauna abundance remained high, indicating different annual cycles of protist versus meiofauna taxa. In May highest Chlorophyll a concentrations (29.4 mg m− 2 ) and protist biomass (107 mg C m− 2 ) occurred, while highest meiofauna abundance was found in August (23.9 × 103 Ind. m− 2 ) and biomass in December (0.6 mg C m− 2 ). The abundant December ice biota community further strengthens the emerging notion of an active biota during the dark Arctic winter. The data demonstrated a strong and partially unexpected seasonality in the Barents Sea ice biota, indicating that changes in ice formation, drift and decay will significantly impact the functioning of the ice-associated ecosystem