Time-Series Benthic Community Composition and Biomass and Associated Environmental Characteristics in the Chukchi Sea During the RUSALCA 2004–2012 Program

Patterns and drivers of megabenthic secondary production on the Barents Sea shelf

“…Additionally, the (unknown) influence of advection processes must be taken into account. A further explanation for the non-correlation between primary and secondary production might be that this relationship is less distinct in the highly mobile epibenthic megafauna (Grebmeier et al 2015b). Hence, we presume that a more holistic approach including all benthic size classes would yield the expected positive correlation of benthic secondary production with primary production on large spatial scales.…”

“…It is a significant player in benthic carbon cycling and serves as food for a variety of higher trophic level and commercially important species like cod or halibut (Clough et al 2005, Renaud et al 2007). Significantly less information is available on benthic megafauna (animals of a size visible on photos or caught via bottom trawling) of Arctic shelves (Bluhm et al 2009, Roy et al 2014, Grebmeier et al 2015b, although it represents an important compartment of benthic energy flow (Piepenburg et al 1995). Moreover, little is known about Barents Sea benthic secondary production of either mega-or macrobenthos, i.e.…”

“…In accordance with Jørgensen et al (2011), who compared the sample efficiency of Van Veen grabs (quantitative) and beam trawls (qualitative), we recommend the use of complementary techniques in future studies to ensure the sampling of the entire benthic community at each station. The studies by Grebmeier et al (2015b) from the Chukchi Sea or by Kedra et al (2013) from the Spitsbergen Bank are good examples of how the use of multiple sampling devices leads to a better understanding of the entire benthic community. Nevertheless, several studies performed on smaller spatial scales confirm the dom- inance of echinoderms in the overall benthic biomass and energy flow on Arctic shelves (Piepenburg 2005 and references therein, Renaud et al 2007).…”

“…A recent study from the Pacific Arctic indicates that macrofaunal biomass is linked more closely to food supply than the megabenthic epifauna (Grebmeier et al 2015b). The authors presumed that mobility may explain this pattern: while the more stationary macro fauna reflects the local food input (either from sedimentation or from advection) more closely, the larger mobile species are capable of exploiting wider areas and a greater variety of food sources.…”

Seasonal variation of CaCO<sub>3</sub> saturation state in bottom water of a biological hotspot in the Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean

“…From chlorophyll a analysis, Grebmeier (2012) and Arrigo and van Dijken (2011) have suggested an increase in primary productivity in the 2000s in the Chukchi Sea. Grebmeier et al (2015) also showed an increase in benthic biomass from the 1970s to 2010 followed by a decline between 2010 and 2012 in our study area. To get a rough idea, we have calculated for the pre-industrial case with the ( diseq + bio ) term half of that at present.…”