Animal–Energy Relationships in a Changing Ocean: The Case of Continental Shelf Macrobenthic Communities on the Weddell Sea and the Vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Antarctic macrobenthic communities thriving on the continental shelf have evolved over thousands of years in perhaps the coldest and most constant environmental conditions in the ocean. This situation may have limited their genetic plasticity to cope with relatively fast environmental changes. The Antarctic geophysical setting restricts the generation of the organic energy (e.g., organic carbon) that fuels continental shelf macrobenthos to the spring and summer months, when vigorous primary production develops in the water column. Wind, ice, and water currents modulate pelagic energy production and distribution over the shelf in such coupled harmony, at least since the last glacial maximum, that it enables the existence of abundant and diverse macrobenthic communities over thousands of square kilometers. Ongoing environmental change, especially warming, is expected to modify the ancestral balance among energy and macrobenthic communities’ abundance on the Antarctic continental shelf. Most likely, the current macrobenthic community assemblages will change, presumably first affecting the east of the Weddell Sea over the rest of the region. The demise of the rich biodiversity of Antarctic macrobenthos will impede our knowledge of Antarctic ecology and our ability to reach a complete understanding of several aspects (e.g., evolutionary, physiological, trophic, and reproductive) of these old marine animals. ABSTRACT: The continental shelves of the Weddell Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula vicinity host abundant macrobenthic communities, and the persistence of which is facing serious global change threats. The current relationship among pelagic energy production, its distribution over the shelf, and macrobenthic consumption is a “clockwork” mechanism that has evolved over thousands of years. Together with biological processes such as production, consumption, reproduction, and competence, it also involves ice (e.g., sea ice, ice shelves, and icebergs), wind, and water currents, among the most important physical controls. This bio-physical machinery undergoes environmental changes that most likely will compromise the persistence of the valuable biodiversity pool that Antarctic macrobenthic communities host. Scientific evidence shows that ongoing environmental change leads to primary production increases and also suggests that, in contrast, macrobenthic biomass and the organic carbon concentration in the sediment may decrease. Warming and acidification may affect the existence of the current Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula shelf macrobenthic communities earlier than other global change agents. Species with the ability to cope with warmer water may have a greater chance of persisting together with allochthonous colonizers. The Antarctic macrobenthos biodiversity pool is a valuable ecosystem service that is under serious threat, and establishing marine protected areas may not be sufficient to preserve it.