Damage and disturbance to coral and sponge habitat of the Aleutian Archipelago

Heifetz, Jonathan; Stone, Robert P.; Shotwell, S. Kalei

doi:10.3354/meps08304

Cited by 68 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Anti patharians, hydrocorals, demosponges, and hexactinellid sponges had the highest proportions of damaged individuals, particularly at depths shallower than 1000 m, indicating that they have little resistance to physical disturbance. The percentages of damaged corals and sponges reported here are considerably lower than the proportions previously reported for a subset of these data (14% and 21%, respectively) by Heifetz et al (2009), but the values presented here for damaged corals (6.5% overall and 7.9% for corals seen at depths <1000 m) are consistent with the damage rate (8.5%) previously reported from the region (Stone, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Damage observed to corals and sponges on transects was previously reported for a subset of the data presented here (Heifetz et al, 2009). That report indicated that 14% of corals and 21% of sponges overall were damaged and that disturbance to the seafloor from fishing gear was widespread and evident on most transects.…”

Section: Damaged Corals and Spongessupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Small numbers of damaged corals and sponges were observed at depths below 1000 m, and, as noted by Heifetz et al (2009), these low levels could be considered background levels from natural events, such as swift currents and submarine landslides. There was isolated evidence of both mechanisms at depths >1000 m in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

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NOAA Prof. Paper NMFS 16: The ecology of deep-sea coral and sponge habitats of the central Aleutian Islands of Alaska

Stone¹

2014

NOAA Professional Paper NMFS

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Damaged Corals and Spongessupporting

confidence: 77%

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NOAA Prof. Paper NMFS 16: The ecology of deep-sea coral and sponge habitats of the central Aleutian Islands of Alaska

Stone¹

2014

NOAA Professional Paper NMFS

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“…Second, smaller epifauna may escape destruction by trawling. Third, damage may reduce the size of these structures: Primnoa pacifica can lose most of their branches after a single trawl tow (Krieger 2001) and both corals and sponges show damage in high-intensity trawled areas (Heifetz et al 2009). A fourth possibility is recent recolonisation, as observed in the Gulf of Alaska for P. pacifica (Krieger 2001).…”

Section: Effects Of Trawlingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…trawling gear (Heifetz et al 2009). Their recovery from trawling activity may be so slow (Andrews et al 2002, Risk et al 2002) that these biogenic habitats should be viewed as a nonrenewable feature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shortspine thornyhead and rockfish (Scorpaenidae) distribution in response to substratum, biogenic structures and trawling

Preez

Tunnicliffe²

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Learmonth Bank in northern British Columbia sustains an active trawl fishery that returns large bycatches of deep-sea sponges and corals. To examine effects of biogenic structures on the distribution of fish, we examined nearly 30 km of high-definition imagery from a remotely operated vehicle and documented locations of 2770 scorpaenid fish. The 2 local genera have similar abundances, averaging about 1.2 individuals 100 m -2 , but have different spatial abundance patterns: shortspine thornyhead Sebastolobus alascanus are randomly distributed on featureless substrata and their abundance increases with depth. Rockfish Sebastes spp. associate with higher seafloor relief nonrandomly and select for sponges and corals over the inert substrata alone; 95% of the rockfish occurred on 27% of the seafloor surveyed. Sponges (Demospongia and Hexactinellida) were abundant on the bedrock and boulders of the bank and adjacent moraine and covered 30 to 55% of the seafloor compared with 1% of the sediment and aggregates of the surrounding basin. The majority of rockfish (80%) occurred with sponges ≥ 50 cm in height, and even beds of short sponges attracted 4 times as many rockfish than did substrata with no large epifauna. While over half of primnoid corals over 30 cm tall had associated rockfish, less than 2% of the seafloor had large coral, and small coral had no associated rockfish. On the adjacent seafloor with past trawling activity, Primnoa pacifica was 13 times less abundant, and large corals and sponges were rare. Thornyhead abundance doubled but rockfish had a 3-fold reduction in numbers. Our study indicates that degradation of biogenic structures is a long-term detriment to rockfish species and, although the mechanism remains unclear, our data suggest it occurs through the destruction of a habitat that is more effective for shelter than rough inert seafloor.

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Benthic grazing and carbon sequestration by deep-water glass sponge reefs

et al. 2015

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Glass sponges are conspicuous members of the deep-sea fauna, but in the northeastern Pacific they form unusual reefs covering kilometers of seafloor. Individual sponges in fjords can process up to 10 m 3 water d 21 osculum 21 ; sponge reefs must therefore process considerable volumes and could significantly affect local water properties. We measured, in situ, the flux of carbon and nitrogen through Aphrocallistes vastus, the dominant reef-building species on Fraser Ridge reef, and calculated the energetics of feeding for all reefs in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Sponges removed up to 90% of bacteria from the water and released ammonium. Because of the high density of sponges, high volumetric flow rates (up to 210 6 35 m 3 m 22 d 21 , mean 6 standard error, 95% confidence interval (CI) 132-288 m 3 m 22 d 21 ), and the efficient extraction of bacteria, we calculate a grazing rate of 165 6 29 m 3 m 22 d 21 (95% CI 102-228 m 3 m 22 d 21 ) for sponge reefs, the highest benthic grazing rate of any suspension-feeding community measured to date. Reefs of A. vastus extract seven times more carbon (3.4 6 1.4 g C m 22 d 21 ) than can be supported by vertical flux of total carbon alone and therefore require productive waters and steady currents to sustain their strong grazing. We calculate that modern sponge reefs in the northeastern Pacific remove 2.27 3 10 5 6 0.91 3 10 5 kg of bacterial carbon daily, nearly an order of magnitude less than the 1.38 3 10 6 6 0.55 3 10 6 kg removed by past sponge reefs estimated to have covered the continental shelf.

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Damage and disturbance to coral and sponge habitat of the Aleutian Archipelago

Cited by 68 publications

References 8 publications

NOAA Prof. Paper NMFS 16: The ecology of deep-sea coral and sponge habitats of the central Aleutian Islands of Alaska

NOAA Prof. Paper NMFS 16: The ecology of deep-sea coral and sponge habitats of the central Aleutian Islands of Alaska

Shortspine thornyhead and rockfish (Scorpaenidae) distribution in response to substratum, biogenic structures and trawling

Benthic grazing and carbon sequestration by deep-water glass sponge reefs

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