Journal
PROGRESS IN OCEANOGRAPHY
Volume 136, Issue -, Pages 92-114Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2015.05.006
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Funding
- U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Environmental Studies Program [M11PG00034]
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
- Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
- Shell Exploration and Production
- ConocoPhillips
- North Pacific Marine Research Institute (NPMRI) through the North Pacific Research Board [A01]
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Polar Programs
- NSF Division of Polar Programs [ARC-1204082]
- NOAA Arctic Research Program CINAR [A101053 (NA090AR4320129)]
- BOEM through the COMIDA Hanna Shoal Project [UTA11-000872]
- Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries [PM13020, PM14040]
- CMI
- CIFAR/RUSALCA
- Shell Exploration and Production Co.
- Statoil USA E & P University of Alaska's Coastal Marine Institute Task Order [M07AC13416]
- BOEM/DOI
- NPRB (BSIERP Project) [B64]
- BOEM [M10PG00050]
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Management
- Shell
- Statoil USA
- US national agency BOEM
- US national agency NASA
- US national agency NOM
- US national agency NPRB
- US national agency NSF
- US national agency ConocoPhillips
- US national agency Shell
- US national agency Statoil USA
- Office of Polar Programs (OPP) [1204082] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The northern Bering and Chukchi Seas are areas in the Pacific Arctic characterized by high northward advection of Pacific Ocean water, with seasonal variability in sea ice cover, water mass characteristics, and benthic processes. In this review, we evaluate the biological and environmental factors that support communities of benthic prey on the continental shelves, with a focus on four macrofaunal biomass hotspots. For the purpose of this study, we define hotspots as macrofaunal benthic communities with high biomass that support a corresponding ecological guild of benthivorous seabird and marine mammal populations. These four benthic hotspots are regions within the influence of the St. Lawrence Island Polynya (SLIP), the Chirikov Basin between St. Lawrence Island and Bering Strait (Chirikov), north of Bering Strait in the southeast Chukchi Sea (SECS), and in the northeast Chukchi Sea (NECS). Detailed benthic macrofaunal sampling indicates that these hotspot regions have been persistent over four decades of sampling due to annual reoccurrence of seasonally consistent, moderate-to-high water column production with significant export of carbon to the underlying sediments. We also evaluate the usage of the four benthic hotspot regions by benthic prey consumers to illuminate predator-prey connectivity. In the SLIP hotspot, spectacled eiders and walruses are important winter consumers of infaunal bivalves and polychaetes, along with epibenthic gastropods and crabs. In the Chirikov hotspot, gray whales have historically been the largest summer consumers of benthic macrofauna, primarily feeding on ampeliscid amphipods in the summer, but they are also foraging further northward in the SECS and NECS hotspots. Areas of concentrated walrus foraging occur in the SLIP hotspot in winter and early spring, the NECS hotspot in summer, and the SECS hotspot in fall. Bottom up forcing by hydrography and food supply to the benthos influences persistence and composition of benthic prey that then influences the distributions of benthivorous upper trophic level populations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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