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Patterns, processes and vulnerability of Southern Ocean benthos: a decadal leap in knowledge and understanding

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Abstract

In the Southern Ocean, that is areas south of the Polar Front, long-term oceanographic cooling, geographic separation, development of isolating current and wind systems, tectonic drift and fluctuation of ice sheets amongst others have resulted in a highly endemic benthic fauna, which is generally adapted to the long-lasting, relatively stable environmental conditions. The Southern Ocean benthic ecosystem has been subject to minimal direct anthropogenic impact (compared to elsewhere) and thus presents unique opportunities to study biodiversity and its responses to environmental change. Since the beginning of the century, research under the Census of Marine Life and International Polar Year initiatives, as well as Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research biology programmes, have considerably advanced our understanding of the Southern Ocean benthos. In this paper, we evaluate recent progress in Southern Ocean benthic research and identify priorities for future research. Intense efforts to sample and describe the benthic fauna, coupled with coordination of information in global databases, have greatly enhanced understanding of the biodiversity and biogeography of the region. Some habitats, such as chemosynthetic systems, have been sampled for the first time, while application of new technologies and methods are yielding new insights into ecosystem structure and function. These advances have also highlighted important research gaps, notably the likely consequences of climate change. In a time of potentially pivotal environmental change, one of the greatest challenges is to balance conservation with increasing demands on the Southern Ocean’s natural resources and services. In this context, the characterization of Southern Ocean biodiversity is an urgent priority requiring timely and accurate species identifications, application of standardized sampling and reporting procedures, as well as cooperation between disciplines and nations.

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Acknowledgments

Ideas for this manuscript were initiated during a workshop on ‘Southern Ocean benthic biodiversity and distribution patterns’ held in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, in March 2010. We are grateful to Victoria Wadley (Census of Antarctic Marine Life) and Pedro Martínez Arbizu (Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life) for providing logistical and financial support for hosting this workshop. Katrin Linse (BAS) is thanked for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Additional funding was gratefully received from the German Research Foundation (DFG, code KA 2857/1-1) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (S. Kaiser). S.N. Brandão was a Alexander von Humboldt fellow and also received support from SYNTHESYS and Encyclopedia of Life. C. Arango acknowledges support from the Australian Antarctic Science Grants (project AA3010) and CAML and the organizers of the Wilhelmshaven workshop for travel funding. NIWA staff was supported by the New Zealand Government under the New Zealand IPY-CAML Project (IPY2007-01); project governance provided by the Ministry of Fisheries Science Team and the Ocean Survey 20/20 CAML Advisory Group (Land Information New Zealand, Ministry of Fisheries, Antarctica New Zealand, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Ltd); part-funding was provided by the Ministry of Science and Innovation project COBR1302 (Biodiversity & Biosecurity). BAS staff was supported by the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme. A. Brandt acknowledges the support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for support of the ANDEEP and ANDEEP-SYSTCO expeditions and various Southern Ocean projects (Br 1121/22, 1-3; Br 1121/26, 1-4; Br 1121/27-1; Br 1121/28-1; Br 1121/33-1; Br 1121/34-1; Br 1121/37-1; Br 1121/38-1; Br 1121/39-1; Br 1121/40-1; Br 1121/41, 1-; Br 1121/43-1; 436 RUS 17/20/02; 436 POL 17/6/03; 436 RUS 17/91/03; 436 RUS 17/103/05; 436 RUS 17/58/06) as well as to the University of Hamburg. J. Ingels and A. Vanreusel acknowledge support from the Belgian Science Policy and the ESF IMCOAST project with contributions of Research Foundation Flanders. F. Leese and C. Held were supported by DFG grants MA 3684/2 and LE 2323/2 within the priority program 1158. B. David and C. De Ridder received support from the Belgian Science Policy (Research project SD/BA/02A; BIANZO II) and ANR Antflocks ANR ANTFLOCKS (No. 07-BLAN-0213-01). D. Janussen thanks the DFG (DFG-Projects JA 1063/14-1.2, JA-1063-17-1), and SYNTHESYS (GB-TAF 885, NL-TAF 11, ES-TAF 1705, AT-TAF 2600) for their support. C. Havermans was financially supported by the Belgian Science Policy with an “Action II” grant (contract number WI/36/H04). T. Riehl received funding from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). N. Wilson’s participation was facilitated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an NSF OPP grant ANT-1043749. Many thanks to Arne Pallentin (NIWA, Welington, NZ) for producing Fig. 1 and to Niki Davey (NIWA, Nelson, NZ), Marc Eléaume (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France), Jürgen Guerrero-Kommritz (Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia), Christopher Mah (Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA), Rafael Martin-Ledo (Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain) and Kate Neill (NIWA, Wellington, NZ) for their help with species identifications (Fig. 2). The authors are grateful to the constructive comments of three anonymous referees, which helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript. This publication is a contribution to the work achieved in the course of the CAML (publication # 83), CeDAMar and ANDEEP (publication # 177) projects.

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Kaiser, S., Brandão, S.N., Brix, S. et al. Patterns, processes and vulnerability of Southern Ocean benthos: a decadal leap in knowledge and understanding. Mar Biol 160, 2295–2317 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2232-6

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