RUI: Ice Scour Disturbance and the Structure of Arctic Bottom Communities

9321504奥利弗冰冲刷是极地水域海底生物群落最具破坏性和最广泛的物理扰动。在高纬度地区，冰压力脊冲刷着60米深的海底，更大的冰山在400米深的海底。该项目将探讨这种干扰对北极底栖生物种群和群落的生态影响。它是一个多学科和联合的加拿大和美国。程序包括两个主要组成部分。首先，通过使用高分辨率侧扫声纳对研究区域进行重复测绘，对三年时间内的物理干扰状态进行表征和建模，并量化潜水员的冲刷恢复过程。这种方法将使我们能够识别每个季节新形成的冲刷，并生成有关干扰覆盖范围、频率、强度和物理恢复的定量和生态相关数据。第二个组成部分是调查底栖生物种群和群落对冰冲刷的反应，记录生物恢复的演替阶段。他们将测试观察到的广泛的分区模式和更大的时空群落镶嵌是否与这一关键干扰有关。这种物理和生物相结合的方法将使他们能够开发冲刷老化和恢复的概念模型，并评估这种干扰对底栖生物生产和多样性的影响。＊＊＊

9321504 Oliver Ice scouring is the most disruptive and widespread physical disturbance to marine bottom communities in polar waters. At high latitudes, ice pressure ridges scour the sea floor to depths of 60m, and larger ice bergs ground as deep as 400m. This project will explore the ecological implications of this disturbance to arctic benthic populations and communities. It is a multi-disciplinary and joint Canadian-U.S. Program involving two major components. The first is to characterize and model the physical disturbance regime over a three-year period by repetitive mapping the study areas with high resolution side-scan sonar, and to quantify the scour recovery process by divers. This approach will enable us to identify newly formed scours each season, and to generate quantitative and ecologically relevant data on disturbance coverage, frequency, intensity, and physical recovery. The second component is to investigate benthic population and community responses to ice scour, documenting the successional stages of biotic recovery. They will test whether observed widespread patterns of zonation and larger spatial and temporal community mosaics are correlated to this key disturbance. This combined physical and biotic approach will enable them to develop a conceptual model of scour aging and recovery, and to evaluate the impact of this disturbance on benthic production and diversity. ***