Benthic food-web responses to marine biological productivity and depth across the Canadian Arctic

A total of 19 stations were sampled between August and October 2011 onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. Two stations were sampled both in August and October to assess seasonal variability in stable isotope composition. At each station, a USNEL box corer (0.25 m2) was deployed to collect seafloor sediments for the determination of stable isotope composition and pigment (Chl a + phaeopigments) concentrations. From each box core, surface sediments (upper 1 cm) were sampled as three sub-cores using a 60 ml disposable syringe (2.6 cm diameter with a cut off anterior end). Sediment samples were immediately frozen at -20 °C for stable isotope analysis and at -80 °C for pigment analysis.


Megabenthic invertebrates were principally collected with an Agassiz trawl (effective opening of 1.5 m and a net mesh size of 40 mm, with a 5 mm cod end liner) with average trawling time and speed of 5 min and 1.5 knots, respectively. At three stations, invertebrates were collected with the box corer. Trawl and box corer catches were washed over a 2 mm sieve under running sea water onboard and 1 to 3 individuals of the most abundant community representatives were collected at each station. Specimens were frozen immediately at -80 °C and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level in the lab.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2016-01-25
Principal investigator
 

Archambault, Philippe
Originator
 

Roy, Virginie
Other citation details

Roy V, Iken K, Gosselin M, Tremblay JÉ, Bélanger S, Archambault P (2015) Benthic faunal assimilation pathways and depth-related changes in food-web structure across the Canadian Arctic. Deep-Sea Research I. 102 : 55-71, doi : 10.1016/j.dsr.2015.04.009
Purpose

The main objective was to investigate POM assimilation pathways for different benthic primary and secondary consumer guilds, and to assess if and how their carbon and nitrogen stable isotope compositions and food-web structure vary spatially across marine productivity and depth regimes of the Canadian Arctic. We specifically addressed the following research questions: (1) Is the spatial variability in the isotopic signatures of the potential food sources and trophic guilds driven by the same environmental variables?, (2) Are the carbon isotopic signatures of primary benthic consumers similar to available food sources at the time of sampling (pelagic-POM and surface sediment) or to other uncharacterised food source (e.g., sea-ice algae)?, and (3) Does the nitrogen isotopic signature of different trophic guilds respond to depth, therefore reflecting a change in food-web structure? We hypothesized that (i) different environmental factors explain the spatial variability in potential food sources and trophic guilds, and (ii) the marine productivity gradient (sea-ice algal or pelagic algal production) will mostly govern δ13C variability of potential food sources and trophic guilds while depth will drive their δ15N variability.
Status
Completed
Point of contact
 

Canadian Cryospheric Information Network

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Polar Data Catalogue

200 University Avenue West, University of Waterloo

 ,

Waterloo

 ,

Ontario

 ,

N2L 3G1

 ,

Canada
(519) 888-4567 x32689
polardata.ca

Polar Data Catalogue Thesaurus (Canada)

  • Arctic

  • Benthos

  • Biological productivity

  • Food web

  • Stable isotope analyses
Place

  • Canadian Arctic
Access constraints
Other restrictions
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

Terms of Use of the Polar Data Catalogue: https://www.polardata.ca/pdcinput/public/termsofuse

Metadata language

eng; CAN
Topic category
  • Environment
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Begin date
2011-08-01
End date
2011-10-21
Supplemental Information

Summary: Not available Research Program(s): ArcticNet. For further information: philippe_archambault@uqar.ca archambault@uqar.ca

Distribution format

  • Digital file

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    1.0

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Distributor
 

Canadian Cryospheric Information Network

 -

Polar Data Catalogue

200 University Avenue West, University of Waterloo

 ,

Waterloo

 ,

Ontario

 ,

N2L 3G1

 ,

Canada
(519) 888-4567 x32689
Included with dataset
No
File identifier
b3402e25-ebbd-4534-8fe0-884960c3da54 XML
Metadata language

eng; CAN
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2022-04-08T13:00:55
Metadata standard name

North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003
Metadata standard version

2009-01-01
Point of contact
 

Canadian Cryospheric Information Network

 -

Polar Data Catalogue

200 University Avenue West, University of Waterloo

 ,

Waterloo

 ,

Ontario

 ,

N2L 3G1

 ,

Canada
(519) 888-4567 x32689
Dataset URI

https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/PDCSearchDOI.jsp?doi_id=12156

 
 

Overviews

overview

Spatial extent

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Keywords

Polar Data Catalogue Thesaurus (Canada)
Arctic Benthos Biological productivity Food web Stable isotope analyses

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