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Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons

Continental margins are dynamic, heterogeneous settings that can include canyons, seamounts, and banks. Two of the largest canyons in the world, Zhemchug and Pribilof, cut into the edge of the continental shelf in the southeastern Bering Sea. Here currents and upwelling interact to produce a highly...

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Autores principales: Miller, Robert J., Hocevar, John, Stone, Robert P., Fedorov, Dmitry V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309998/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22470486
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033885
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author Miller, Robert J.
Hocevar, John
Stone, Robert P.
Fedorov, Dmitry V.
author_facet Miller, Robert J.
Hocevar, John
Stone, Robert P.
Fedorov, Dmitry V.
author_sort Miller, Robert J.
collection PubMed
description Continental margins are dynamic, heterogeneous settings that can include canyons, seamounts, and banks. Two of the largest canyons in the world, Zhemchug and Pribilof, cut into the edge of the continental shelf in the southeastern Bering Sea. Here currents and upwelling interact to produce a highly productive area, termed the Green Belt, that supports an abundance of fishes and squids as well as birds and marine mammals. We show that in some areas the floor of these canyons harbors high densities of gorgonian and pennatulacean corals and sponges, likely due to enhanced surface productivity, benthic currents and seafloor topography. Rockfishes, including the commercially important Pacific ocean perch, Sebastes alutus, were associated with corals and sponges as well as with isolated boulders. Sculpins, poachers and pleuronectid flounders were also associated with corals in Pribilof Canyon, where corals were most abundant. Fishes likely use corals and sponges as sources of vertical relief, which may harbor prey as well as provide shelter from predators. Boulders may be equivalent habitat in this regard, but are sparse in the canyons, strongly suggesting that biogenic structure is important fish habitat. Evidence of disturbance to the benthos from fishing activities was observed in these remote canyons. Bottom trawling and other benthic fishing gear has been shown to damage corals and sponges that may be very slow to recover from such disturbance. Regulation of these destructive practices is key to conservation of benthic habitats in these canyons and the ecosystem services they provide.
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spelling pubmed-33099982012-04-02 Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons Miller, Robert J. Hocevar, John Stone, Robert P. Fedorov, Dmitry V. PLoS One Research Article Continental margins are dynamic, heterogeneous settings that can include canyons, seamounts, and banks. Two of the largest canyons in the world, Zhemchug and Pribilof, cut into the edge of the continental shelf in the southeastern Bering Sea. Here currents and upwelling interact to produce a highly productive area, termed the Green Belt, that supports an abundance of fishes and squids as well as birds and marine mammals. We show that in some areas the floor of these canyons harbors high densities of gorgonian and pennatulacean corals and sponges, likely due to enhanced surface productivity, benthic currents and seafloor topography. Rockfishes, including the commercially important Pacific ocean perch, Sebastes alutus, were associated with corals and sponges as well as with isolated boulders. Sculpins, poachers and pleuronectid flounders were also associated with corals in Pribilof Canyon, where corals were most abundant. Fishes likely use corals and sponges as sources of vertical relief, which may harbor prey as well as provide shelter from predators. Boulders may be equivalent habitat in this regard, but are sparse in the canyons, strongly suggesting that biogenic structure is important fish habitat. Evidence of disturbance to the benthos from fishing activities was observed in these remote canyons. Bottom trawling and other benthic fishing gear has been shown to damage corals and sponges that may be very slow to recover from such disturbance. Regulation of these destructive practices is key to conservation of benthic habitats in these canyons and the ecosystem services they provide. Public Library of Science 2012-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3309998/ /pubmed/22470486 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033885 Text en This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
spellingShingle Research Article
Miller, Robert J.
Hocevar, John
Stone, Robert P.
Fedorov, Dmitry V.
Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title_full Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title_fullStr Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title_full_unstemmed Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title_short Structure-Forming Corals and Sponges and Their Use as Fish Habitat in Bering Sea Submarine Canyons
title_sort structure-forming corals and sponges and their use as fish habitat in bering sea submarine canyons
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309998/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22470486
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033885
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