ARCUS 13th Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum 2001

Benthic Community Composition and Biomass Distribution: Gulf of Alaska to the Canadian Archipelago

Arianne L. Balsom¹, Jackie M. Grebmeier², Lee W. Cooper^3
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA, Phone +1.865.974.6160, Fax +1.865.974.3067, Merrow1@aol.com
²Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA, Phone +1.865.974.2592, Fax +1.865.974.3067, jgrebmei@utk.edu
³Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, TN, USA, Phone +1.865.974.2990, Fax +1.865.974.3067, lcooper1@utk.edu

Benthic production and standing stock have been found in past studies to be variable within the Canadian Archipelago, and considered generally lower than in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. During the 2000 US-Canada biodiversity collaboration functioning as part of the St. Roch II "Voyage of Rediscovery" to the Northwest Passage, several "hot spots" of standing stock were encountered with biomass values rivaling sampled Bering and Chukchi Sea sites, with an extreme value of 81.95 gC/m² at Hat Island off Requisite Channel in Queene Maude Gulf. Sampling within the Archipelago also demonstrated the other end of the biomass spectrum, finding a biomass value of 0.024 gC/m² at Clifton Point off of Victoria Island, near Dolphin and Union Strait in Amundsen Gulf. Average biomass appears to be lowest in the Gulf of Alaska, reaching the highest measured average values in the Bering and Chukchi seas, and decreasing in the Beaufort Sea and into the Canadian Archipelago where the most extreme values of the cruise were found.

These results are preliminary due to continuing analysis of station samples, with numbers presented ranging from one to the four total replicates per station completed. Single grabs are presented for a preliminary spatial description. This spatial description indicates a possible trend of bivalve dominance in more southerly latitudes, Yoldia sp. dominant in the Gulf of Alaska, Nuculana radiata and Nucula belloti dominant in the Bering and Chukchi seas. The amphipod Ampelisca sp. and bivalve Macoma calcarea were dominant in the Bering Strait region. The polychaete Sternaspidae and amphipod Byblis sp. were dominant in the Beaufort Sea samples and entering the Canadian Archipelago. At Hat Island, bivalves were again dominant, consisting of Astartidae and Hiatellidae. The most northeasterly station (near Spence Bay, Nunavut) was largely dominated by sponge Porifera.

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