Vertical zonation of the Siberian Arctic benthos: bathymetric boundaries from coastal shoals to deep-sea Central Arctic

Andrey Vedenin; Sergey Galkin; Alexander N Mironov; Andrey Gebruk

doi:10.7717/peerj.11640

Vertical zonation of the Siberian Arctic benthos: bathymetric boundaries from coastal shoals to deep-sea Central Arctic

PeerJ. 2021 Jun 29:9:e11640. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11640. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Andrey Vedenin¹, Sergey Galkin², Alexander N Mironov², Andrey Gebruk²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Plankton Communities Structure and Dynamics, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
² Laboratory of Ocean Bottom Fauna, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

The bathymetric distribution of species of Annelida, Crustacea and Echinodermata from the region including the Kara, Laptev and East Siberian seas and the adjacent region of the deep-sea Central Arctic was analysed. We focused on vertical species ranges revealing zones of crowding of upper and lower species range limits. Using published data and in part the material obtained during the expeditions of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, we evaluated species vertical distribution from 0 m to the maximum depth of the Central Arctic (~4,400 m). The entire depth range was divided into smaller intervals; number of upper and lower limits of species depth ranges was counted and plotted to visualize the range limits crowding. Several zones of crowding of vertical species range limits were found for all analysed macrotaxa. The most significant zones occurred at depths of 450-800 m and 1,800-2,000 m. The first depth zone corresponds to the boundary between the sublittoral and bathyal faunas. The last one marks the boundary between the bathyal and abyssal faunas. Depths of these boundaries differ from those reported from other Ocean regions; possible explanations of these differences are discussed.

Keywords: Arctic benthos; Biogeography; Siberian seas; Vertical zonation.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) project (No. 18-05-60228). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.