Temporal patterns of benthic community development

Authors: Frank Beuchel Bjørn Gulliksen

Publish Date: 2008/02/27

Volume: 31, Issue: 8, Pages: 913-924

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Abstract

We investigated temporal patterns of recolonisation and disturbance in a benthic hard bottom community in higharctic Kongsfjorden from 1980 to 2003 through annual photographic surveys A manipulative sampling design was applied where half of the study area treatment areas was cleared at the beginning of the study Twentythree different taxa and groups of benthic epifauna were found in the photographs The benthic community structures of treatments and controls converged within the first decade but significant differences prevailed until ≤13 years after the start of the study We could distinguish between three different time intervals with increased interannual changes While the observed differences during the first two intervals could be attributed to recolonisation and succession the changes in interval 3 were mostly due to increased external forcing and characterised by low intergroup and high interannual differences During this interval brown algae mainly Desmarestia and the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis emerged in high densities while sea anemone populations declined Different recolonisation patterns for individual species were related to life span rate of maturity predators and larval settlement We could not find a climax stage in the succession for the benthic community at Kvadehuken presumably due to the constant level of disturbances at the siteWe thank the captains and the crew of RV Jan Mayen and RV Johann Ruud for help under the fieldwork and practical assistance and Bjørnar Seim for participation and help with collecting the underwater pictures Raul Primicero provided important help for the statistical analysis We thank Paul Renaud and two anonymous reviewers for their advice and helpful comments on the manuscript The study is part of a PhD project founded by the Norwegian Research Council

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