Megabenthic assemblage structure on three New Zealand seamounts: implications for seafloor massive sulfide mining

Boschen, Rachel; Rowden, Ashley A.; Clark, Malcolm R.; Barton, S. J.; Pallentin, Arne; Gardner, Jonathan P. A.

doi:10.3354/meps11239

Cited by 54 publications

(54 citation statements)

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“…The distribution of benthic communities at small spatial scales on seamounts can be highly variable, driven by the multiple habitat-types present in these complex features (Rowden et al, 2005;Boschen et al, 2015;Davies et al, 2015;Du Preez et al, 2016;Rogers, 2018;Victorero et al, 2018). This variability is a challenge for survey design, with the need to ensure sufficient area or habitat types within the seamount are sampled, and thus that potential recovery by taxa across a range of habitat types are captured.…”

Section: Methodological Issues and Checks Relating To The Detection Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Little Evidence of Benthic Community Resilience to Bottom Trawling on Seamounts After 15 Years

et al. 2019

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The resilience and recovery dynamics of deep-sea habitats impacted by bottom trawling are poorly known. This paper reports on a fishing impact recovery comparison based on four towed camera surveys over a 15-year period (2001-2015) on a group of small seamounts on the Chatham Rise, east of New Zealand, on which pre-disturbance benthic communities are dominated by thicket-forming scleractinian corals. The six seamounts studied encompass a range of trawl histories, including one with high and persistent levels of trawling throughout the survey period, two with intermittent and intermediate levels of trawling, two which were low/untrawled, and one, 'Morgue', which was closed to trawling in 2001, having been heavily trawled up to that point. Still photographs from all surveys were analyzed for the identification and abundance of all visible benthic fauna with effort made to ensure consistency of data among surveys. Because increases in image resolution and quality over time resulted in a persistent trend of increasing abundances, analyses were concentrated on comparisons among seamounts within surveys and how these relationships changed with time. The abundance, species richness, and diversity of benthic communities were higher on low/untrawled seamounts than on those that had been trawled. Multivariate community structure showed similar patterns at each survey point, the low/untrawled seamounts being strongly dissimilar to the persistently trawled seamount, with the others ranged between these extremes, broadly in accordance with their cumulative trawl histories. Community structure on the persistently trawled seamount was less variable than on the other seamounts throughout the study period, possibly because of regular 're-setting' of the community by disturbance from trawling. Although there was some variability in results between whole seamount and summit sector analyses, in general communities on Morgue remained similar to those on the persistently trawled seamount, showing little indication of steps toward recovery to its pre-disturbance state following its closure. These results indicate low resilience of benthic communities on the seamounts to the effects of bottom trawling.

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Section: Methodological Issues and Checks Relating To The Detection Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Little Evidence of Benthic Community Resilience to Bottom Trawling on Seamounts After 15 Years

et al. 2019

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“…These baseline studies show an undisturbed environmental state of active vent fields and can be used as ground truthing for prospective monitoring work and marine management (Levin et al, 2016b;Robert et al, 2016). Imagery based monitoring can detect and define faunal assemblages before, during and after mining or similar disturbance events and are suggested as cost effective methods (Van Dover et al, 2014;Boschen et al, 2015). Similar work with lower resolution imagery has been done at seamounts after trawling occurred, which shows changes in megafauna (Gollner et al, 2017).…”

Section: D Reconstruction and Terrain Variable Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detailed Mapping of Hydrothermal Vent Fauna: A 3D Reconstruction Approach Based on Video Imagery

et al. 2019

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“…In most other locations, including areas targeted for mining, the potential for regional larval supply to facilitate recovery may be lower because source populations are farther away. An added complication is that some fauna on active vents are shared with those on inactive vents (Gollner et al, 2013;Boschen et al, 2015), so the latter can, under some circumstances, act as source populations after disturbance events. Consequently, the manner in which community dynamics will change in the event of connectivity disruption in the region is difficult to assess (Boschen et al, 2016).…”

Section: Evaluating Resilience To Human Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

et al. 2018

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Species inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents are strongly influenced by the geological setting, as it provides the chemical-rich fluids supporting the food web, creates the patchwork of seafloor habitat, and generates catastrophic disturbances that can eradicate entire communities. The patches of vent habitat host a network of communities (a metacommunity) connected by dispersal of planktonic larvae. The dynamics of the metacommunity are influenced not only by birth rates, death rates and interactions of populations at the local site, but also by regional influences on dispersal from different sites. The connections to other communities provide a mechanism for dynamics at a local site to affect features of the regional biota. In this paper, we explore the challenges and potential benefits of applying metacommunity theory to vent communities, with a particular focus on effects of disturbance. We synthesize field observations to inform models and identify data gaps that need to be addressed to answer key questions including: (1) what is the influence of the magnitude and rate of disturbance on ecological attributes, such as time to extinction or resilience in a metacommunity; (2) what interactions between local and regional processes control species diversity, and (3) which communities are "hot spots" of key ecological significance. We conclude by assessing our ability to evaluate resilience of vent metacommunities to human disturbance (e.g., deep-sea mining). Although the resilience of a few highly disturbed vent systems in the eastern Pacific has been quantified, these values cannot be generalized to remote locales in the western Pacific or mid Atlantic where disturbance rates are different and information on local controls is missing.

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Megabenthic assemblage structure on three New Zealand seamounts: implications for seafloor massive sulfide mining

Abstract: An assemblage including corals, crinoids, ascidians and brittlestars on Rumble II West seamount, in the vicinity of SMS deposits.

Cited by 54 publications

References 50 publications

Little Evidence of Benthic Community Resilience to Bottom Trawling on Seamounts After 15 Years

Little Evidence of Benthic Community Resilience to Bottom Trawling on Seamounts After 15 Years

Detailed Mapping of Hydrothermal Vent Fauna: A 3D Reconstruction Approach Based on Video Imagery

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

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