The 14th ArcticNet Annual Science Meeting is the largest Arctic and Northern research gathering held in Canada. It brings together leading Arctic researchers, graduate students, Northern community representatives, government and industry partners and stakeholders from all fields.
The ArcticNet ASM is the ideal venue for access to the best possible research from all fields of Arctic and Northern science, participation in discussions around the challenges and opportunities arising from climate change and modernization in the North, and maintaining and developing collaborations among all those with interest in the Arctic and its peoples.
Jasmin Godbold is presenting results from the ChAOS project on Wednesday 12 December in the afternoon (session MAR01 Arctic Marine Benthic Ecosystems: From Local to Pan-Arctic Scales):
Characterization of benthic community structure, biodiversity and activity from contrasting regions of ice cover in the western Barents Sea
The northern high latitudes are experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change recorded globally, but the response of Arctic benthic ecosystems is poorly understood. Here, we quantify the effects of whole community macrofaunal burrowing and ventilation behaviour and associated sediment-water nutrient fluxes across the boundary between strongly Atlantic- and Arctic-dominated water masses in the western Barents Sea. We find that differences in assemblage composition, organism activity and standing stock along the continuum of sea ice-covered to open water strongly affect nutrient transformations and fluxes, although the pattern of variation can vary between years and is contingent on which invertebrate species are prominent. Our findings indicate that the contribution of the Arctic seafloor to regional and global carbon and nutrient cycles will fundamentally alter in the near to medium term.
