Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/K006886/1
Are vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep-sea associated with high species richness and enhanced ecosystem function?
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor AD Rogers, University of Oxford, Zoology
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Zoology
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Recent studies of the biodiversity of the deep-sea meiofauna have identified an exponential relationship between species richness and ecosystem function. This implies that facilitation, the modification of the environment by species that render it more suitable for others, may be an important driver of high diversity and ecosystem function in deep-sea communities. We propose a studentship to investigate the relationships between species richness, community structure and ecosystem function in deep-sea macrofauna from the North West Atlantic. As part of the international NEREIDA programme aimed at providing data for ecosystem-based management of deep-sea bottom fisheries in the high seas off eastern Canada and the USA, CEFAS scientists have collected 331 box core samples of macrofauna. Along with metadata on the oceanography, seabed topography, distribution of megafauna and of fishing effort, these samples represent an unprecedented dataset spanning cold waters to the north of the Flemish Cap to warmer waters further south, off the Grand Banks. The studentship will be jointly supervised by deep-sea ecologists from the University of Oxford and the CEFAS Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft, who are partners in the NEREIDA project and who also participate in the EUs contribution to management of the area within the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO), the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO). The student will use the samples and associated metadata to address the following questions: (i) Is there evidence of an exponential relationship between macrofaunal diversity and ecosystem function in the deep-seacommunities of the NW Atlantic continental slope. (ii) If this relationship exists, how is it influenced by environmental variation, particularly temperature and environmental parameters associated with increasing depth and at what spatial scale. (iii) How does environmental variation influence community structure in terms of taxonomic composition and size (biomass) / abundance relationships. (iv) Is there evidence of facilitation of sediment infaunal communities by structural species associated with VMEs (e.g. enhanced species diversity and ecosystem function inside sponge beds compared to outside). (v) Is there evidence of a significant decrease in diversity, changes in community structure and ecosystem function in heavily fished versus lightly fished or protected areas. The studentship will involve identifying the macrofauna from box core samples to obtain direct counts of species richness and also estimates of rarefied species richness (ES51, ES100). Community structure will be analysed through assessment of species dominance through Shannon Wiener and Pielou's indices and also through analysis of size (biomass) - abundance relationships within samples. Biodiversity function will be estimated through measurement of community biomass and also community biomass relationships to surface primary production and sediment organic carbon measurements from each box core. Variation in species diversity, community structure and ecosystem function will be related to environmental variation using mixed effects general additive mixed models (GAMMs). Residuals from these models will be used to analyse spatial autocorrelation in the data, an important consideration in a correlative study like this where samples are spaced at a range of scales but are more or less continuously distributed along the continental slope. The project will provide insights into fundamental questions regarding the relationship of deep-sea species diversity and ecosystem functioning and how diversity may or may not be facilitated by the presence of sponge aggregations (a know ecosystem vulnerable to fishing) in the North West Atlantic. It will also address a hitherto poorly understood issue of the impacts of deep-sea bottom trawling on infaunal community structure and function
- NERC Reference:
- NE/K006886/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Open CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £72,753
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|
| £13,978 | £49,194 | £9,583 |
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