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Recent declines in sea ice extent and warming seawater temperatures in the Arctic have the potential to impact regional and pan-Arctic marine ecosystems. To investigate marine biological response to these key drivers and other environmental factors, we undertook a robust trend analysis of benthic macrofaunal populations and environmental drivers in the Bering Strait region. Our focus was on the waters of the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas, which are shallow (<100 m) and seasonally productive, with strong pelagic-benthic coupling between water column derived organic matter and the seafloor. Studies indicate that both in situ production and advection of upstream phytodetritus support persistent biologically productive regions, termed hotspots, in the greater Bering Strait region. The benthic marine ecosystem is dominated by macroinvertebrates (e.g., clams, polychaetes, and amphipods) that in turn serve as food resources for diving mammals and seabirds, thus allowing for changes to cascade strongly through the food web from prey to predator. During our study, the persistence of seasonal sea ice significantly declined; trend analyses indicate both earlier sea ice breakup and later fall freeze-up in recent years. When combined with warming seawater temperatures in the region, these changes have ramifications for water column processes that influence benthic faunal biomass and composition, which can transfer to upper trophic level predators. We studied these changes by evaluating time series sites in three benthic biomass hotspots starting in 1998 (Southeast Chukchi Sea region), 1999 (Chirikov Basin region), and 2000 (St. Lawrence Island Polynya region). We present these data within a broader evaluation of benthic biomass results from prior cruises dating as early as the 1970s. The current study focuses on the period 1998–2015 at sites occupied annually each July using CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Since 2010, these time series sites have become part of the international Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO), a network of standard time series stations and transect lines in the Pacific Arctic that is used for evaluating changes within the biological system. We found that these regions have experienced northward shifts in high benthic biomass and changes in dominant macrofaunal composition that are coincident with recent reduced sea ice cover and variable warming of seasonal water column temperatures. Hydrographic changes can influence chlorophyll a inventories in surface sediments and total organic carbon content, both of which are indicators of food supply to the benthos. In addition, sediment grain size reflects variable current flow that in turn influences faunal composition. Time series studies are essential for evaluating whether this region is transitioning or even reaching a “tipping point” that could shift the benthic-dominated system to a pelagic one, with large-scale ramifications for ecosystem structure in this highly productive Pacific Arctic ecosystem.
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A Chlorophyll Biomass Time-Series for the Distributed Biological Observatory in the Context of Seasonal Sea Ice Declines in the Pacific Arctic Region
Declines in seasonal sea ice in polar regions have stimulated projections of how primary production has shifted in response to greater light penetration over a longer open water season. Despite the limitations of remotely sensed observations in an often cloudy environment, remote sensing data provide strong indications that surface chlorophyll biomass has increased (since 2000) as sea ice has declined in the Pacific Arctic region. We present here shipboard measurements of chlorophyll-a that have been made annually in July since 2000 from the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) stations in the Bering Strait region. This time series as well as shipboard observations made in other months since the late 1980s implicate complexities that intrude on a simple expectation that, as open water periods increase, the production and biomass of phytoplankton will increase predictably. These shipboard observations indicate that there have not been sharp increases in chlorophyll-a, for either maxima observed in the water column or integrated over the whole water column, at the DBO stations over a time-series extending for as long as 20 years coinciding with seasonal sea ice declines. On the other hand, biomass may be increasing in other months: we provide a shipboard confirmation of a fall bloom in October as wind mixing introduced nutrients back into the upper water column. The productive DBO stations may be at a high enough production already that additional enhancements in chlorophyll-a biomass should not be expected, but our time-series record does not exclude the possibility that additional enhanced production may be present in other areas outside the DBO station grid. These findings may also reflect limitations imposed by nutrient cycling and water column structure. The increasing freshwater component of waters flowing through the Bering Strait is likely associated with increased stratification that limits the potential change in biological production associated with decreases in seasonal sea ice persistence.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917469
- PAR ID:
- 10431269
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geosciences
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 2076-3263
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 307
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12080307
