The Barents Sea is experiencing long-term climate-driven changes, e.g. modification in oceanographic conditions and extensive sea ice loss, which can lead to large, yet unquantified disruptions to ecosystem functioning. This key region hosts a large fraction of Arctic primary productivity. However, processes governing benthic and pelagic coupling are not mechanistically understood, limiting our ability to predict the impacts of future perturbations. We combine field observations with a reaction-transport model approach to quantify organic matter (OM) processing and disentangle its drivers. Sedimentary OM reactivity patterns show no gradients relative to sea ice extent, being mostly driven by seafloor spatial heterogeneity. Burial of high reactivity, marine-derived OM is evident at sites influenced by Atlantic Water (AW), whereas low reactivity material is linked to terrestrial inputs on the central shelf. Degradation rates are mainly driven by aerobic respiration (40–75%), being greater at sites where highly reactive material is buried. Similarly, ammonium and phosphate fluxes are greater at those sites. The present-day AW-dominated shelf might represent the future scenario for the entire Barents Sea. Our results represent a baseline systematic understanding of seafloor geochemistry, allowing us to anticipate changes that could be imposed on the pan-Arctic in the future if climate-driven perturbations persist. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The changing Arctic Ocean: consequences for biological communities, biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functioning’.

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Abstract. Constraining the mechanisms controlling organic matter (OM) reactivity and, thus, degradation, preservation, and burial in marine sediments across spatial and temporal scales is key to understanding carbon cycling in the past, present, and future. However, we still lack a detailed quantitative understanding of what controls OM reactivity in marine sediments and, consequently, a general framework that would allow model parametrization in data-poor areas. To fill this gap, we quantify apparent OM reactivity (i.e. OM degradation rate constants) by extracting reactive continuum model (RCM) parameters (a and v, which define the shape and scale of OM reactivity profiles, respectively) from observed benthic organic carbon and sulfate dynamics across 14 contrasting depositional settings distributed over five distinct benthic provinces. We further complement the newly derived parameter set with a compilation of 37 previously published RCM a and v estimates to explore large-scale trends in OM reactivity. Our analysis shows that the large-scale variability in apparent OM reactivity is largely driven by differences in parameter a (10−3–107) with a high frequency of values in the range 100–104 years. In contrast, and in broad agreement with previous findings, inversely determined v values fall within a narrow range (0.1–0.2). Results also show that the variability in parameter a and, thus, in apparent OM reactivity is a function of the whole depositional environment, rather than traditionally proposed, single environmental controls (e.g. water depth, sedimentation rate, OM fluxes). Thus, we caution against the simplifying use of a single environmental control for predicting apparent OM reactivity beyond a specific local environmental context (i.e. well-defined geographic scale). Additionally, model results indicate that, while OM fluxes exert a dominant control on depth-integrated OM degradation rates across most depositional environments, apparent OM reactivity becomes a dominant control in depositional environments that receive exceptionally reactive OM. Furthermore, model results show that apparent OM reactivity exerts a key control on the relative significance of OM degradation pathways, the redox zonation of the sediment, and rates of anaerobic oxidation of methane. In summary, our large-scale assessment (i) further supports the notion of apparent OM reactivity as a dynamic ecosystem property, (ii) consolidates the distributions of RCM parameters, and (iii) provides quantitative constraints on how OM reactivity governs benthic biogeochemical cycling and exchange. Therefore, it provides important global constraints on the most plausible range of RCM parameters a and v and largely alleviates the difficulty of determining OM reactivity in RCM by constraining it to only one variable, i.e. the parameter a. It thus represents an important advance for model parameterization in data-poor areas.

The capture of crabs of the genus Callinectes is one of the oldest extractive activities practised by waterside communities, due to the abundance of brachyurans along the Brazilian coast. The present paper aimed to provide basic information on the population biology of C. sapidus and C. danae during the period of December 2003 to November 2004, in Babitonga Bay, Joinville, Santa Catarina. The size of the first maturation of C. danae was estimated as 7.1 cm in total carapace width for females, and as 8.6 cm for males. Fecundity of the 20 females of C. danae with carapace width from 7.0 to 11.0 cm varied from 618,667 to 811,267 eggs. Fecundity of C. sapidus was higher, with a median of 978,000 eggs per female, but carapace widths in this species were also larger, with the highest frequency of females attaining 19.01 cm on average. In both species, a tendency was observed for the egg mass to increase with size of females. The capture per unit of effort presented the lowest values in summer, while the largest values occurred from March, August and November. A total of 80 males and 117 females of C. sapidus were captured in the four collecting areas, with the largest abundances in Area III (45.18%), followed by Areas II, IV and I. The size of the first maturation of C. sapidus was estimated as 10.2 cm for females and as 9.0 cm for males. Fishing effort was in relative equilibrium for adult stock (males = 58.75% and females = 52.99%) and juveniles (males = 41.25% and females = 47.01%). The largest monthly rates of biomass of C. sapidus occurred from April to November, with a peak of capture in August, without significant differences in the participation of males and females.