Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T12:43:51.619Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Benthic habitat and megafaunal zonation across the Hebridean Slope, western Scotland, analysed from archived seabed photographs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2014

David J. Hughes
David J. Hughes*
Affiliation:
Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: D.J. Hughes, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, UK email: david.hughes@sams.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Benthic habitat and epibenthic megafauna are described from seabed photographs taken in or near three potential deep-water Marine Protected Areas on the Hebridean Slope, surveyed in 1988, 1995–96 and 1998. Broad bathymetric zones are defined by visible substratum characteristics, and by cluster analysis using presence/absence of identified fauna. The shelf edge and upper slope (to 350 m depth) showed current-swept coarse substrata with a very sparse fauna. A transition to finer sandy sediments was apparent at 350–470 m, with a greater abundance of mobile epifauna. The brittlestar Ophiocten gracilis occurred at high density below 600 m depth in all three areas. Southern stations indicated an abrupt lower boundary for this zone at ca 1000 m. In the north, rippled sands with xenophyophores occurred below the O. gracilis zone at 1000–1100 m. Xenophyophores were also seen in smaller numbers at this depth in the south. From ~1300–1600 m a seabed of burrowed fine mud was recorded in both northern and southern areas. Bioturbated sediments on the Rockall Trough floor at ~2060 m supported more visible epifauna, principally the brittlestar Ophiomusium lymani and the octocoral Acanella arbuscula. The bathymetric pattern differs from a scheme proposed in 2010 for the deep north-east Atlantic in the lack of any obvious zonal boundary at 750 m. No cold-water corals or sponge aggregations were observed. Trawl marks were observed in all three areas, particularly in the 1998 northern survey, with highest frequency at 1300–1400 m.

Keywords

bathymetric zonationbenthic habitatdeep seaHebridean SlopemegafaunaScotlandseabed photographytrawling
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 94 , Issue 4 , June 2014 , pp. 643 - 658
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amaro, T., Bianchelli, S., Billett, D.S.M., Cunha, M.R., Pusceddu, A. and Danovaro, R. (2010) The trophic biology of the holothurian Molpadia musculus: implications for organic matter cycling and ecosystem functioning in a deep submarine canyon. Biogeosciences 7, 2419–2432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armishaw, J.E., Holmes, R.W. and Stow, D.A.V. (1998) Morphology and sedimentation on the Hebrides Slope and Barra Fan, NW UK continental margin. In Stoker, M.S., Evans, D. and Cramp, A. (eds) Geological processes on continental margins: sedimentation, mass-wasting and stability, Special Publication No. 129. London: Geological Society, pp. 81–104.Google Scholar
Armishaw, J.E., Holmes, R.N. and Stow, D.A.V. (2000) The Barra Fan: a bottom-current reworked, glacially-fed submarine fan system. Marine and Petroleum Geology 17, 219–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.A. (1974) Behavioural ecology of the mud-burrowing crab Goneplax rhomboides. Marine Biology 25, 239–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.A. (1986) Mud-burrowing megafauna of the Clyde Sea area. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 90(B), 351–361.Google Scholar
Bailey, D.M., Collins, M.A., Gordon, J.D.M., Zuur, A.F. and Priede, I.G. (2009) Long-term changes in deep-water fish populations in the northeast Atlantic: a deeper reaching effect of fisheries? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (B) 276, 1965–1969.Google ScholarPubMed
Benn, A.R., Weaver, P.P., Billett, D.S.M., van den Hove, S., Murdock, A.P., Doneghan, G.B. and Le Bas, T. (2010) Human activities on the deep seafloor in the north east Atlantic: an assessment of spatial extent. PloS ONE 5, e12730, 1–15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012730.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bett, B.J. (2001) UK Atlantic Margin Environmental Survey: introduction and overview of bathyal benthic ecology. Continental Shelf Research 21, 917–956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bett, B.J., Rice, A.L. and Thurston, M.H. (1995) A quantitative photographic survey of ‘spoke burrow’-type Lebensspuren on the Cape Verde Abyssal Plain. Internationale Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie 80, 153–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Booth, D.A. and Ellett, D.J. (1983) The Scottish continental slope current. Continental Shelf Research 2, 127–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrows, M. and Thorpe, S.A. (1999) Drifter observations of the Hebrides slope current and nearby circulation pattern. Annales Geophysicae 17, 280–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, R.S. (2005) Zonation of deep biota on continental margins. Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review 43, 21–278.Google Scholar
Carrie, R.H., Mitchell, L. and Black, K.D. (1998) Fatty acids in surface sediment at the Hebridean shelf edge, west of Scotland. Organic Geochemistry 29, 1583–1593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Warwick, R.M. (2001) Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. 2nd editon. Plymouth: Primer-E Ltd.Google Scholar
Davies, A.J., Roberts, J.M. and Hall-Spencer, J. (2007) Preserving deep-sea natural heritage: emerging issues in offshore conservation and management. Biological Conservation 138, 299–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, N.L., Foggo, A. and Howell, K.L. (2013) Using species–area relationships to inform baseline conservation targets for the deep North East Atlantic. PloS ONE 8, e58941. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058941.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gage, J.D. (1986) The benthic fauna of the Rockall Trough: regional distribution and bathymetric zonation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 88B, 159–174.Google Scholar
Gage, J.D. (2001) Deep-sea benthic community and environmental impact assessment at the Atlantic Frontier. Continental Shelf Research 21, 957–986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, J.D. (2002) Benthic biodiversity across and along the continental margin: patterns, ecological and historical determinants, and anthropogenic threats. In Wefer, G., Billett, D., Hebbeln, D., Jørgensen, B.B., Schlüter, M. and van Weering, T.C.E. (eds) (2003) Ocean margin systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 307–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, J.D., Lamont, P.A., Kroeger, K., Paterson, G.L.J. and Gonzalez Vecino, J.L. (2000) Patterns in deep-sea macrobenthos at the continental margin: standing crop, diversity and faunal change on the continental slope off Scotland. Hydrobiologia 440, 261–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, J.D., Roberts, J.M., Hartley, J.P. and Humphery, J.D. (2005) Potential impacts of deep-sea trawling on the benthic ecosystem along the northern European continental margin: a review. American Fisheries Society Symposium 41, 503–517.Google Scholar
Glover, A.G., Gooday, A.J., Bailey, D.M., Billett, D.S.M., Chevaldonné, P., Colaço, A., Copley, J., Cuvelier, D., Desbruyères, D., Kalogeropoulou, V., Klages, M., Lampadariou, N., Lejeusne, C., Mestre, N.C., Paterson, G.L.J., Perez, T., Ruhl, H., Sarrazin, J., Soltwedel, T., Soto, E.H., Thatje, S., Tselepides, A., Van Gaever, S. and Vanreusel, A. (2010) Temporal change in deep-sea benthic ecosystems: a review of the evidence from recent time-series studies. Advances in Marine Biology 58, 1–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gooday, A.J. and Hughes, J.A. (2002) Foraminifera associated with phytodetritus deposits at a bathyal site in the northern Rockall Trough (NE Atlantic): seasonal contrasts and a comparison of stained and dead assemblages. Marine Micropaleontology 46, 83–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, J.D.M. (2003) The Rockall Trough, northeast Atlantic: the cradle of deep-sea biological oceanography that is now being subjected to unsustainable fishing activity. Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science 31, 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, J.D.M. and Mauchline, J. (1996) The distribution and diet of the dominant, slope-dwelling eel, Synaphobranchus kaupi, of the Rockall Trough. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 76, 493–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartnoll, R.G., Rice, A.L. and Attrill, M.J. (1992) Aspects of the biology of the galatheid genus Munida (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the Porcupine Seabight, northeast Atlantic. Sarsia 76, 231–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, J.A. and Humphery, J.D. (1995) Photographic evidence for slope-current activity, Hebrides Slope, NE Atlantic Ocean. Scottish Journal of Geology 30, 107–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, K.L. (2010) A benthic classification system to aid in the implementation of marine protected area networks in the deep/high seas of the NE Atlantic. Biological Conservation 143, 1041–1056.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, K.L., Davies, J.S., Hughes, D.J. and Narayanaswamy, B.E. (2007) Strategic Environmental Assessment/Special Area for Conservation. Photographic analysis report. Report to the Department of Trade and Industry, 82 pp.Google Scholar
Howell, K.L., Davies, J.S. and Narayanaswamy, B.E. (2010) Identifying deep-sea megafaunal epibenthic assemblages for use in habitat mapping and marine protected area network design. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 90, 33–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, D.J. (2001) Quantitative analysis of a deep-water bryozoan collection from the Hebridean continental slope. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 81, 987–993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, D.J. and Gage, J.D. (2004) Benthic metazoan biomass, community structure and bioturbation at three contrasting deep-water sites on the northwest European continental margin. Progress in Oceanography 63, 29–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, J.A. and Gooday, A.J. (2004) Associations between living benthic foraminifera and dead tests of Syringammina fragilissima (Xenophyophorea) in the Darwin Mounds region, NE Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research I 51, 1741–1758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, W.R., Oguri, K., Kitazato, H., Ansari, Z.A. and Witte, U. (2011) Epi-benthic megafaunal zonation across an oxygen minimum zone at the Indian continental margin. Deep-Sea Research I 58, 699–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huthnance, J.M. (1986) Rockall slope current and shelf edge processes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 88B, 83–101.Google Scholar
Johnson, C., Sherwin, T., Smythe-Wright, D., Shimmield, T. and Turrell, W. (2010) Wyville Thomson Ridge overflow water: spatial and temporal distribution in the Rockall Trough. Deep-Sea Research I 57, 1153–1162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, D.O.B., Bett, B.J. and Tyler, P.A. (2007) Megabenthic ecology of the deep Faroe-Shetland Channel: a photographic study. Deep-Sea Research I 54, 1111–1128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamont, P.A. and Gage, J.D. (1998) Dense brittle star population on the Scottish continental slope. In Mooi, R. and Telford, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Ninth International Echinoderm Conference, San Francisco, California, USA, 5–9 August 1996. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, pp. 377–382.Google Scholar
Levin, L.A. and Dayton, P.K. (2009) Ecological theory and continental margins: where shallow meets deep. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24, 606–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lonsdale, P. and Hollister, C.D. (1979) A near-bottom traverse of Rockall Trough: hydrographic and geologic inferences. Oceanologia Acta 2, 91–105.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. and Piepenburg, D. (1996) Epibenthic community patterns on the continental slope off East Greenland at 750N. Marine Ecology Progress Series 143, 151–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, L., Harvey, S.M., Gage, J.D. and Fallick, A.E. (1997) Organic carbon dynamics in shelf edge sediments off the Hebrides: a seasonal perspective. Internationale Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie 82, 425–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayanaswamy, B.E., Howell, K.L., Hughes, D.J., Davies, J.S., Roberts, J.M. and Black, K.D. (2006) Strategic Environmental Assessment Area 7 Photographic Analysis–Report. Report to the Department of Trade and Industry, 177 pp.Google Scholar
Narayanaswamy, B.E., Hughes, D.J., Howell, K.L.Davies, J. and Jacobs, C. (2013) First observations of megafaunal communities inhabiting George Bligh Bank, northeast Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research II 92, 79–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohta, S. (1984) Star-shaped feeding traces produced by echiuran worms on the deep-sea floor of the Bay of Bengal. Deep-Sea Research A 31, 1415–1432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OSPAR Commission (2010) Background document for deep-sea sponge aggregations. OSPAR Biodiversity and Ecosystems Series No. 485, 47 pp.Google Scholar
Przeslawski, R., Dundas, K., Radke, L. and Anderson, T.J. (2012) Deep-sea Lebensspuren of the Australian continental margins. Deep-Sea Research I 65, 26–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puig, P., Canals, M., Company, J.B., Martin, J., Amblas, D., Lastras, G., Palanques, A. and Calafat, A.M. (2012) Ploughing the deep sea floor. Nature 489, 286–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramirez-Llodra, E., Tyler, P.A., Baker, M.C., Bergstad, O.A., Clark, M.R., Escobar, E., Levin, L.A., Menot, L., Rowden, A.A., Smith, C.R. and Van Dover, C.L. (2011) Man and the last great wilderness: human impact on the deep sea. PloS ONE 6, e22588, 1–25. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rengstorf, A.M., Yesson, C., Brown, C. and Grehan, A.J. (2013) High-resolution suitability modelling can improve conservation of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea. Journal of Biogeography 40, 1702–1704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J.M., Harvey, S.M., Lamont, P.A., Gage, J.D. and Humphery, J.D. (2000) Seabed photography, environmental assessment and evidence for deep-water trawling on the continental margin west of the Hebrides. Hydrobiologia 441, 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J.M., Henry, L.-A., Long, D. and Hartley, J.P. (2008) Cold-water coral reef frameworks, megafaunal communities and evidence for coral carbonate mounds on the Hatton Bank, north east Atlantic. Facies 54, 297–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J.M., Wheeler, A.J. and Freiwald, A. (2006) Reefs of the deep: the biology and geology of cold-water coral ecosystems. Science 312, 543–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ross, R.E. and Howell, K.L. (2013) Use of predictive habitat modelling to assess the distribution and extent of the current protection of ‘listed’ deep-sea habitats. Diversity and Distributions 19, 433–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scottish Government (2012) Report to the Scottish Parliament on Progress to Identify a Scottish Network of Marine Protected Areas. Report produced by APS Group Scotland, DPPAS13722 (12/12), 71 pp. Available at: www.scotland.gov.uk (accessed 1 June 2013).Google Scholar
Scottish Natural Heritage and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (2012) Advice to the Scottish Government on the selection of Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the development of the Scottish MPA network. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 457.Google Scholar
Schlacher, T.A., Williams, A., Althaus, F. and Schlacher-Hoenlinger, M.A. (2010) High-resolution seabed imagery as a tool for biodiversity conservation planning on continental margins. Marine Ecology 31, 200–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.R., Jumars, P.A. and DeMaster, D.J. (1986) In situ studies of megafaunal mounds indicate rapid sediment turnover and community response at the deep-sea floor. Nature 323, 251–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, A.J., Simpson, J.H., Harikrishnan, M. and Malarkey, J. (2001) Flow structure and seasonality in the Hebridean slope current. Oceanologia Acta 24, S63–S76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, H., Davies, J., Long, D., Strömberg, H. and Hitchen, K. (2009) JNCC Offshore Natura Survey, Anton Dohrn Seamount and East Rockall Bank Areas of Search, 2009/03-JNCC Cruise Report. Joint Nature Conservation Committee Report Number CR/09/113, 89 pp.Google Scholar
Wakefield, W.W. and Genin, A. (1987) The use of a Canadian (perspective) grid in deep-sea photography. Deep-Sea Research 34, 469–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wefer, G., Billett, D., Hebbeln, D., Jørgensen, B.B., Schlüter, M. and van Weering, T.C.E. (2003) Ocean margin systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. (2003) Comparison of near seabed currents at two locations in the Porcupine Sea Bight—implications for benthic fauna. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 83, 683–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar