Environmental controls and anthropogenic impacts on deep-sea sponge grounds in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, NE Atlantic: the importance of considering spatial scale to distinguish drivers of change
Environmental controls and anthropogenic impacts on deep-sea sponge grounds in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, NE Atlantic: the importance of considering spatial scale to distinguish drivers of change
Determining the scale of anthropogenic impacts is critical in order to understand ecosystem effects of human activities, within the context of changes caused by natural environmental variability. We applied spatial eigenfunction analysis to disentangle effects of anthropogenic drivers from environmental factors on species assembly in the Faroe-Shetland Channel (FSC), in the northeast Atlantic. We found that the species assembly considered here was structured at both small and large spatial scales. Specifically, substrate types, distance to oil wells and pipelines, the presence of objects and demersal fishing (both static and mobile) appeared significant in explaining large spatial scale species assembly structures. Conversely, temperature and variance in temperature shaped the species community across smaller spatial scales. Mobile scavenger species were found in areas impacted by demersal fishing. Oil and gas structures seemed to provide a habitat for a range of species including the commercially important fishes Molva sp. and Sebastes sp. These results demonstrate how the benthic ecosystem in the FSC has been shaped by multiple human activities, at both small and large spatial scales. Only by sampling datasets covering several sites, like in this study, can the effects of anthropogenic activities be separated from natural environmental controls.
Vad, J
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Kazanidis, G
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Henry, L-a
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Jones, D O B
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Gates, A R
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Roberts, J M
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Birchenough, Silvana
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19 October 2019
Vad, J
643df3b9-aeaf-4d37-91bb-520f14863b81
Kazanidis, G
ede3bc13-9fb9-44e1-ab6e-3a0dc0c6f6d1
Henry, L-a
994bc4c7-cc08-46cc-91e1-d2b99d56e8ba
Jones, D O B
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Gates, A R
327a3cc6-2e53-4090-9f96-219461087be9
Roberts, J M
2e5ce269-a055-4201-994d-96e4a57c5282
Birchenough, Silvana
e02fd12a-1082-4664-825d-45af6b6b36bf
Vad, J, Kazanidis, G, Henry, L-a, Jones, D O B, Gates, A R, Roberts, J M and Birchenough, Silvana
(2019)
Environmental controls and anthropogenic impacts on deep-sea sponge grounds in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, NE Atlantic: the importance of considering spatial scale to distinguish drivers of change.
ICES Journal of Marine Science.
(doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsz185).
Abstract
Determining the scale of anthropogenic impacts is critical in order to understand ecosystem effects of human activities, within the context of changes caused by natural environmental variability. We applied spatial eigenfunction analysis to disentangle effects of anthropogenic drivers from environmental factors on species assembly in the Faroe-Shetland Channel (FSC), in the northeast Atlantic. We found that the species assembly considered here was structured at both small and large spatial scales. Specifically, substrate types, distance to oil wells and pipelines, the presence of objects and demersal fishing (both static and mobile) appeared significant in explaining large spatial scale species assembly structures. Conversely, temperature and variance in temperature shaped the species community across smaller spatial scales. Mobile scavenger species were found in areas impacted by demersal fishing. Oil and gas structures seemed to provide a habitat for a range of species including the commercially important fishes Molva sp. and Sebastes sp. These results demonstrate how the benthic ecosystem in the FSC has been shaped by multiple human activities, at both small and large spatial scales. Only by sampling datasets covering several sites, like in this study, can the effects of anthropogenic activities be separated from natural environmental controls.
Text
fsz185
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Accepted/In Press date: 22 August 2019
Published date: 19 October 2019
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 435927
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/435927
ISSN: 1054-3139
PURE UUID: dcdd802d-9319-420c-9f42-0ce17d9ccaad
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Date deposited: 25 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:28
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Author:
J Vad
Author:
G Kazanidis
Author:
L-a Henry
Author:
D O B Jones
Author:
A R Gates
Author:
J M Roberts
Author:
Silvana Birchenough
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