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Recolonisation of new habitats by meiobenthic organisms in the deep Arctic Ocean: an experimental approach

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Abstract

Commercial exploitation and abrupt changes of the natural conditions may have severe impacts on the Arctic deep-sea ecosystem. The present recolonisation experiment mimicked a situation after a catastrophic disturbance (e.g. by turbidites caused by destabilised continental slopes after methane hydrate decomposition) and investigated whether the recolonisation of a deep-sea habitat by meiobenthic organisms is fostered by variations in nutrition and/or sediment structure. Two “Sediment Tray Free Vehicles” were deployed for 1 year in summer 2003 at 2,500 m water depth in the Arctic deep-sea in the eastern Fram Strait. The recolonisation trays were filled with different artificial and natural sediment types (glass beads, sand, sediment mixture, pure deep-sea sediment) and were enriched with various types of food (algae, yeast, fish). After 1 year, meiobenthos abundances and various sediment-related environmental parameters were investigated. Foraminifera were generally the most successful group: they dominated all treatments and accounted for about 87 % of the total meiobenthos. Colonising meiobenthos specimens were generally smaller compared to those in the surrounding deep-sea sediment, suggesting an active recolonisation by juveniles. Although experimental treatments with fine-grained, algae-enriched sediment showed abundances closest to natural conditions, the results suggest that food availability was the main determining factor for a successful recolonisation by meiobenthos, and the structure of recolonised sediments was shown to have a subordinate influence.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the ship officers and crew of the German research-icebreaker Polarstern for their help during the expeditions to HAUSGARTEN in summers 2003 and 2004. We thank three anonymous referees for their valuable comments on our manuscript and Kirstin Meyer for her competent contribution during the finalisation of this paper. This work was part of the EU-project HERMIONE funded under the European Commission’s Framework Seven Programme, contract number 226354.

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Correspondence to Ingo Schewe.

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Freese, D., Schewe, I., Kanzog, C. et al. Recolonisation of new habitats by meiobenthic organisms in the deep Arctic Ocean: an experimental approach. Polar Biol 35, 1801–1813 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1223-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1223-2

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