Strong macrobenthic community differentiation among sub-Arctic deep fjords on small spatial scales

Fjords play an important role in carbon cycling and sequestration, but the burial of organic matter in sediments strongly depends on the composition of macrobenthic communities. We studied three deep, sub-Arctic fjords located in northern Norway to assess the community differentiation of neighbourin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Estuarine, coastal and shelf science coastal and shelf science, 2021-05, Vol.252, p.107271, Article 107271
Main Authors: Kokarev, Valentin, Tachon, Mathieu, Austad, Marthe, McGovern, Maeve, Reiss, Henning
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Infauna
Macrofauna
Marinbiologi: 497
Marine biology: 497
Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400
Mathematics and natural science: 400
Norwegian coast
Organic matter
Saltfjord
Skjerstadfjord
Sørfolda
VDP
Vestfjord
Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480
Zoology and botany: 480
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Summary:Fjords play an important role in carbon cycling and sequestration, but the burial of organic matter in sediments strongly depends on the composition of macrobenthic communities. We studied three deep, sub-Arctic fjords located in northern Norway to assess the community differentiation of neighbouring fjords and the underlying environmental drivers. The fjords have relatively deep depositional basins (370–570 m), but they differ in sill depth and water exchange. In all fjords studied, the silty sediments were characterised by organic matter of mostly marine origin. We found that each basin was inhabited by a distinct benthic community, with pronounced differences in total abundance, biomass and species diversity. Only in one fjord (Skjerstadfjord), with a shallow sill, a slight mouth-to-head pattern of the community was found. The strong differentiation of macrobenthos among different fjords seems not to be directly associated with environmental drivers such as organic matter input, water masses or depth. •Three sub-Arctic fjords with deep basins (>350 m) were studied.•Each basin was inhabited by a distinct macrobenthic community.•Within-fjord variation was little and mainly related to organic matter supply.•Sill depth affected water exchange and macrofaunal composition.•Stochastic processes are proposed as a driver for among-fjord variation.
ISSN:0272-7714
1096-0015
1096-0015
DOI:10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107271