Benthos Expert Network

The Benthos Expert Network of the CBMP-Marine provides information on the status and potential changes in benthic biodiversity and advice for monitoring.

The Benthos Expert Network of the CBMP-Marine is tasked with advising on how to implement related components of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Plan. Benthos biota have been identified as a Focal Ecosystem Component (FEC) in the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Plan. FECs are key elements of the Arctic marine ecosystem. Changes in FECs status likely indicate changes in the overall marine environment.

The benthos FECs are:

• Macrofauna (organisms > 1.0 mm)
• Megafauna (organisms that can be identified from seafloor photographs or are caught by trawls)

Long-term monitoring programs on benthic fauna are missing for large areas of the Arctic. In areas where repeated monitoring has occurred, it is difficult to compare data due to different sampling approaches and different targets of monitoring efforts. There is a need for an international standardization of long-term benthic monitoring.

The CBMP Benthos Expert Network has identified potential ways to improve benthic monitoring coverage, including adding two benthic experts on board national scientific fishery research vessels. This would allow all species to be analyzed, thus increasing knowledge of marine biodiversity and the possibility to monitor all components of the environment while effectively managing resources of time and cost. This approach is already implemented in the Barents Sea (Institute of Marine Research) and the CBMP Benthos Expert Network continues to explore opportunities for implementation in the North Atlantic.

Benthos publications

• Certain, G., Jørgensen, L.L., Christel, I., Planque, B., Vinceny, B. (2015). Mapping the vulnerability of animal community to pressure in marine systems: Disentangling impact types and integrating their effect from the individual to the community level. ICES Journal of Marine Research doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsv003.

• Cobb D.G., Roy V., Link H., Archambault P (in press). Information to support the re-assessment of original ecologically and biologically significant areas (EBSAs) in the Beaufort Sea Large Ocean Management Area. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2014/nnn.

• Divine LM, Iken K, Bluhm BA (2015) (in review) Regional benthic food web structure on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea shelf. Marine Ecology Progress Series.

• Jørgensen LL, Archambault P, Armstrong C, Dolgov A, Edinger E, Gilchrist G, Hildebrand J, Piepenburg D, Smith W, Quillfeldt C, Vecchione M, Bjørge A (in review). Arctic Marine Biodiversity (2015) (chap 36G). In: Global Integrated Marine Assessment under the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects R12; the World Ocean Assessment I.

• Jørgensen LL, Planque, B., Thangstad, TH, Certain, G. (accepted with changes) Vulnerability of megabenthic species to trawling in the Barents Sea. ICES Journal of Marine Science; Special issue on Trawling Impact.

• Roy R, Iken K, Gosselin M, Tremblay J-É, Bélanger S, Archambault P (in review) Benthic food-web responses to marine biological productivity and depth across the Canadian Arctic. Deep-Sea Research Part I

• Roy R, Iken K, Archambault P (in review) Regional variability of megabenthic community structure across the Canadian Arctic. Arctic.

• Roy V., Archambault P., Conlan K., Hendrycks E., Aitken A. (in review) Predictive models of macrobenthos patterns in the southeastern Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf. Journal of Marine Systems

• Tu KL, Blanchard AL, Iken K, Horstmann-Dehn L (in press) Small-scale variability in benthic food webs in the northeastern Chukchi Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series. Doi: 10.3354/meps11216

• Denisenko.SG, Denisenko NV, Sukhotin AA Conference Paper. Monitoring of benthic biodiversity in the Pechora Sea (SE Barents Sea) as conservation of population of endangered species such as Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus).The Arctic Biodiversity Congress, Trondheim, Norway; 12/2014

• Denisenko NV (2014) Deep-sea fauna of European seas: An Annotated species check-list of benthic invertebrates living deeper than 2000m in the seas bordering Europe. Bryozoa. Invertebtate Zoology, 11(1):89-98.

• Goldsmit J, Howland KL, Archambault P (2014) Establishing a baseline for early detection of non-indigenous species in ports of the Canadian Arctic. Aquatic Invasions, 9(3): 327-342.

• Jørgensen LL, Ljubin,P, Degen,R, Lacharite M., (2014) The Barents Sea Long Term Monitoring Plan for multiple stressors on Benthic Mega-Fauna. Oral presentation at the Arctic Biodiversity Congress Dec 2014, Trondheim, Norway.

• Jørgensen LL, Ljubin P, Skjoldal HR, Ingvaldsen RB, Anisimova N, Manushin I. (2014) Distribution of benthic megafauna in the Barents Sea: baseline for an ecosystem approach to management. ICES J Mar Sci.

• Nephin J, Juniper SK, Archambault P (2014) Diversity, Abundance and Community Structure of Benthic Macro- and Megafauna on the Beaufort Shelf andSlope. PloS One.

• Roy V, Iken K, Archambault P (2014) Environmental drivers of the Canadian Arctic mega-epibenthic communities. PLoS ONE 9(7): e100900.

• Denisenko S.G., Zgurovskyb K.A. (eds) 2013. Impact of bottom trawling on benthic ecosystem of the Barents Sea and the possibility of reducing the negative effects. Murmansk. WWF. 52 p. (In Russian)

• Denisenko SG (2013) Biodiversity and bio-resources of macrozoobethos of the Barents Sea. Structure and multy-years variations. Saint-Petersburg: Nauka. 283pp (In Russian)

• Iken K, Bluhm BA, Søreide JE (2013) Arctic benthic communities. Arctic Report Card Update for 2013. NOAA Arctic Report Card.

• Josefson AB, Mokievsky V, Bergmann M, Blicher ME, Bluhm B, Cochrane S, Denisenko NV, Hasemann C, Jørgensen LL, Klages M, Schewe I, Sejr MK, Soltwedel T, Wesławski JM, Włodarska-Kowalczuk M (2013) Marine invertebrates, chapter 8. In: Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, Status and Trends in Arctic Biodiversity. CAFF. 2013, Akureyri, Iceland.

• Michalsen K, Dalpadado P, Eriksen E, Gjøsæter H, Ingvaldsen RB, Johannesen E, Jørgensen LL, Knutsen T, Prozorkevich D, Skern-Mauritzen M (2013) Marine living resources of the Barents Sea R11; Ecosystem understanding and monitoring in a climate change perspective. Marine Biology Research 9: 932-947