Resilience of seamount benthic communities to trawling disturbance

Goode, Savannah L.; Rowden, Ashley A.; Bowden, David A.; Clark, Malcolm R.

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105086

Cited by 39 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…The slow rate of recovery of the sedimentary structure of the seabed and associated organic matter in trawled areas may inhibit the restoration of benthic communities at such depths (Clark et al., 2019; Goode et al., 2020). It is hypothesized that deep‐sea environments would need around half a century to naturally recover from the damage exerted by bottom trawling (Da Ros et al., 2019), whereas shallower environments may present recoveries in a few weeks (Ferguson et al., 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of Biogeochemical Alterations of Deep‐Sea Sediments by Bottom Trawling

Paradis

Goñi

Masqué

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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Continental margins are the continuum between the land and the ocean, and they are responsible for the majority of both burial and remineralization of organic carbon (OC) in the ocean (Dunne et al., 2007). However, biogeochemical cycles of organic matter in continental margins are altered by several anthropogenic activities (Bauer et al., 2013). Amongst those, bottom trawling is considered to be the most harmful and has the potential to alter the biogeochemistry of continental margins at a global scale given its widespread extension, high frequency, and direct impacts on the seafloor (

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of Biogeochemical Alterations of Deep‐Sea Sediments by Bottom Trawling

Paradis

Goñi

Masqué

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Furthermore, the removal of habitat forming organisms or structural engineers can lead to long-term changes in community structure and composition (e.g., Sköld et al, 2018). Such shifts have been particularly well documented in shelf communities (Kaiser et al, 2000), whereas in the deep sea, studies are scarcer due to the difficulty in finding comparable untrawled conditions (Goode et al, 2020). In addition to direct physical impacts, sponges can be affected by increased suspended sediments caused by bottom trawlers, even when trawling activity is performed kilometers away (Martín et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The First Cut Is the Deepest: Trawl Effects on a Deep-Sea Sponge Ground Are Pronounced Four Years on

Morrison¹,

Meyer²,

Roberts³

et al. 2020

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Few studies have described the effects of physical disturbance and post-recovery of deep-sea benthic communities. Here, we explore the status of deep-sea sponge ground communities four years after being impacted by an experimental bottom trawl. The diversity and abundance of epibenthic megafauna of two distinct benthic communities in disturbed versus control areas were surveyed using a remotely operated vehicle on the Schulz Bank, Arctic Ocean. Four years after disturbance, megafaunal densities of the shallow (∼600 m depth) and deep (∼1,400 m depth) sites were significantly lower on the disturbed patches compared to the control areas. Multivariate analyses revealed a distinct separation between disturbed and control communities for both sites, with trawling causing 29–58% of the variation. Many epibenthic morphotypes were significantly impacted by the trawl, including ascidians, Geodia parva, Hexactinellida spp., Craniella infrequens, Lissodendoryx complicata, Haliclonia sp. Stylocordyla borealis, Gersemia rubiformis and Actiniaria sp. However, we found some smaller morphospecies to be equally abundant with control transects, including Polymastia thielei, Geodia hentscheli, and Stelletta rhaphidiophora, reflecting lower trawl impact for these morphotypes. Overall, our results suggest that these are fragile ecosystems that require much more time than four years to recover from physical disturbance typical of trawling activities.

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“…The lower diversity of feeding approaches in deep‐sea fish suggests that most species in this study tend towards generalist diets which depend on benthic invertebrates. It is well established that deep‐sea fisheries significantly impact benthic invertebrate communities in terms of composition, abundance and diversity (Clark et al., 2019; Goode et al., 2020). Fisheries exploitation likely impacts deep‐sea trophic dynamics for fish communities through a bottom‐up effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How functionally diverse are fish in the deep? A comparison of fish communities in deep and shallow‐water systems

Carrington

Papa

Beese

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Functional diversity metrics inform how species’ traits relate to ecosystem functions, useful for quantifying how exploitation and disturbance impact ecosystems. We compare the functional diversity of entire fish communities in a shallow‐water region with a deep‐sea region for further insight into the differences between these ecosystem types. Location The regions compared in this study were selected to represent a shallow‐water coastal region, Tasman and Golden Bays (TBGB), and a deep‐sea region, Chatham Rise (CR), in New Zealand. Methods Functional diversity was assessed using four metrics: functional richness, evenness, divergence and dispersion. We compared these metrics across four key functions: habitat use, feeding, locomotion and life history. Results Our results showed that overall, the shallow‐water and deep‐sea ecosystems had equal diversity. When focusing on the four ecological functions, the two ecosystems exhibited equal diversity metrics across most analyses. Of the significantly different results, the deep‐sea had higher functional richness for habitat use and locomotion traits, lower functional dispersion for feeding and lower functional evenness for life history. Main conclusions Differences across the functions highlight higher diversity of habitat utilization by deep‐sea fish, while lower diversity in feeding suggests deep‐sea fish tend towards generalist diets, likely driven by low food availability. Deep‐sea fish displayed an increased range of locomotive traits in our analyses, but this conflicts with existing evidence and warrants further study. Life‐history results suggest deep‐sea fish exhibit higher clustering of traits, indicating potential under‐utilization of life‐history strategies in the deep‐sea. Our results demonstrate that although deep‐sea fish communities have similar levels of diversity to shallow‐water communities, the traits that structure this diversity differ, and therefore, the systems may respond to exploitation differently.

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Resilience of seamount benthic communities to trawling disturbance

Cited by 39 publications

References 118 publications

Persistence of Biogeochemical Alterations of Deep‐Sea Sediments by Bottom Trawling

Persistence of Biogeochemical Alterations of Deep‐Sea Sediments by Bottom Trawling

The First Cut Is the Deepest: Trawl Effects on a Deep-Sea Sponge Ground Are Pronounced Four Years on

How functionally diverse are fish in the deep? A comparison of fish communities in deep and shallow‐water systems

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