Benthic Macrofaunal and Megafaunal Distribution on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and Slope
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Benthic Macrofaunal and Megafaunal Distribution on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and Slope by Jessica Nephin B.Sc., University of British Columbia, 2009 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences c Jessica Nephin, 2014 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Benthic Macrofaunal and Megafaunal Distribution on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and Slope by Jessica Nephin B.Sc., University of British Columbia, 2009 Supervisory Committee Dr. S. Kim Juniper School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Department of Biology Supervisor Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Department of Biology Departmental Member Dr. Julia Baum Department of Biology Outside Member Dr. Philippe Archambault Université du Québec à Rimouski Additional Member iii Supervisory Committee Dr. S. Kim Juniper (School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Department of Biology) Supervisor Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe (School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Department of Biology) Departmental Member Dr. Julia Baum (Department of Biology) Outside Member Dr. Philippe Archambault (Université du Québec à Rimouski) Additional Member ABSTRACT The Arctic region has experienced the largest degree of anthropogenic warming, causing rapid, yet variable sea-ice loss. The effects of this warming on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf have led to a longer ice-free season which has assisted the expansion of northern development, mainly in the oil and gas sector. Both these direct and indirect effects of climate change will likely impact the marine ecosystem of this region, in which benthic fauna play a key ecological role. The aim of this thesis was to expand the current baseline knowledge of benthic fauna in the interest of developing the capacity to identify, predict and manage benthic change. The distribution of benthic macro- and megafauna was characterized utilizing community data from two recent benthic surveys on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope. Fauna were collected from 63 stations using box core and trawl sampling gear over the summers of 2009 through 2012 between depths of 30 and 1,000 m. Spatial patterns of abundance, biomass and α and β diversity metrics were examined. Megafaunal abundance and α diversity were elevated on the shelf compared to the slope while the macrofauna did not vary significantly with depth. Multivariate analyses illustrated that both macro- and megafaunal community composition varied more across the depth gradient than from east to west along the shelf. However the change across the depth gradient was greater for the megafauna than for the macrofauna. I proposed that megafaunal slope taxa were differentiated from shelf taxa, as faunal replacement not nestedness appeared to be the main driver of megafaunal β diversity across the depth gradient. The lack of correlation between macro- and megafauna in abundance, biomass and α and β diversity suggests that these faunal components vary at different spatial scales. These results demonstrate how separately sampling the different benthic components can yield different spatial patterns, with implications for future benthic monitoring in the region. This work contributes to the current regional baselines by providing the first comprehensive description of megafaunal distribution on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and by extending our knowledge of benthic distribution patterns deeper on the slope. iv Contents Supervisory Committee ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction1 1.1 The Arctic and Canadian Beaufort Shelf in a warming climate.... 1 1.2 Benthic communities of soft-bottom continental margins....... 2 1.2.1 Distribution patterns....................... 2 1.2.2 Diversity.............................. 3 1.2.3 Faunal classes........................... 4 1.2.4 Arctic benthos .......................... 5 1.3 Physical properties of the Canadian Beaufort Shelf .......... 7 1.4 Data collection .............................. 8 1.5 Thesis goals and chapter structure.................... 11 2 Diversity, abundance and community structure of benthic macro- and megafauna on the Beaufort shelf and slope 12 2.1 Introduction................................ 12 2.2 Methods.................................. 14 2.2.1 Study area and sampling..................... 14 2.2.2 Data preparation and quality control.............. 16 2.2.3 Analyses.............................. 20 2.3 Results and Discussion.......................... 21 v 2.3.1 Distribution of occurrence, abundance and rarity . 21 2.3.2 Patterns in abundance and taxa richness............ 26 2.3.3 Patterns in β diversity...................... 30 2.4 Conclusions................................ 36 3 Spatial patterns of macro- and megafauna on the Canadian Beau- fort shelf and slope 38 3.1 Introduction................................ 38 3.2 Methods.................................. 40 3.2.1 Study area and sampling..................... 40 3.2.2 Data management ........................ 42 3.2.3 Analyses.............................. 45 3.3 Results................................... 46 3.3.1 Total abundance, biomass and diversity............. 46 3.3.2 Abundance, biomass and body size of faunal classes . 50 3.3.3 Spatial distribution of taxa.................... 54 3.3.4 β diversity trends......................... 54 3.3.5 Spatial patterns in community composition........... 57 3.3.6 Abundance of taxa by transect ................. 59 3.4 Discussion................................. 61 3.4.1 Trends in abundance, biomass and body size.......... 61 3.4.2 Faunal replacement with depth ................. 62 3.4.3 Macro- and megafaunal congruence............... 68 4 Conclusion 70 Appendix A Co-occurrence of macro- and megafaunal taxa 74 Appendix B Variability in relative abundance of taxa from trawl and video data 80 Appendix C Meiofauna-macrofauna comparison 84 Appendix D Macro- and megafaunal datasets 87 Glossary 98 Bibliography 101 vi List of Tables Table 1.1 Examples of macro- and megafaunal taxa of the Beaufort Shelf. 6 Table 2.1 Shared taxa that were classed as megafauna and removed from the macrofauna dataset....................... 18 Table 2.2 Shared taxa that were classed as macrofauna and removed from the megafauna dataset....................... 20 Table 2.3 Total abundance and richness by sample with year, depth and location of sampling......................... 25 Table 2.4 Analysis of variance of macro- and megafaunal abundance and taxa richness with year and depth................. 29 Table 3.1 Shared taxa which were classed as megafauna and removed from the macrofauna dataset....................... 43 Table 3.2 Shared taxa which were classed as macrofauna and removed from the megafauna dataset....................... 44 Table 3.3 Total abundance, biomass and richness by sample with depth and location of sampling......................... 47 Table 3.4 Analysis of variance of macro- and megafaunal abundance, biomass and diversity with depth and transect............... 49 Table 3.5 Mean abundance of macro- and megafaunal taxa in all four transects 60 Table 3.6 Feeding modes of dominant macrofaunal taxa .......... 66 Table 3.7 Feeding modes of dominant megafaunal taxa........... 67 Table C.1 Total abundance and biomass of meio- and macrofauna by sample 85 Table D.1 Macrofaunal data from ArcticNet sampling............ 87 Table D.2 Megafaunal data from ArcticNet sampling ............ 89 Table D.3 Macrofaunal data from BREA sampling.............. 93 Table D.4 Megafaunal data from BREA sampling.............. 94 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 Features of the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope....... 8 Figure 1.2 Major benthic surveys on the Canadian Beaufort shelf and slope 10 Figure 2.1 Beaufort slope model....................... 15 Figure 2.2 Sampling stations and ice coverage on the Beaufort shelf and slope from 2009 to 2011 ..................... 16 Figure 2.3 Distribution of occurrence.................... 23 Figure 2.4 Proportion of rare taxa unique to or shared between shelf and slope................................ 24 Figure 2.5 Relationships of total macro- and megafaunal abundance with depth ............................... 27 Figure 2.6 Comparison of macro- and megafaunal abundance and taxa richness between shelf and slope stations and sampling years . 28 Figure 2.7 Individual-based rarefaction curves for 2009 and 2010 megafau- nal datasets............................ 30 Figure 2.8 β diversity across the depth gradient.............. 31 Figure 2.9 Dendrogram and nMDS ordination of station similarities . 32 Figure 2.10 Map of Beaufort sampling region with georeferenced clusters . 34 Figure 2.11 Relative abundance and depth ranges of dominant taxa . 35 Figure 3.1 Box corer and beam trawl sampling stations on the Beaufort shelf and slope .......................... 41 Figure 3.2 Total abundance, biomass and diversity across depth and tran- sects................................ 48 Figure 3.3 Abundance of dominant classes across transects and depths . 51 Figure 3.4 Biomass of dominant classes across transects and depths . 52 Figure 3.5 Average body size of dominant classes across transects and depths 53 Figure 3.6 Number of taxa unique to or shared between transects . 54 Figure 3.7 β diversity across the depth gradient.............. 56 viii Figure 3.8 Correlation between macro- and megafaunal Bray-Curtis simi-