The biological MAREANO sampling methods … biological MAREANO sampling – methods and relevance For management of ecosystem health, what gear and fauna should we choose? MAREANO

The biological MAREANO sampling – methods and relevance

For management of ecosystem health, what gear and fauna should we choose?

MAREANO workshop 17-18 October 2012 L.Buhl-Mortensen

MAREANO is mapping for spatial management

“All Norwegian waters will be mapped to secure a thorough, complete and environmental safe management.

The goal is to avoid all activities that can threaten the environment.”

(quote Norwegian minister of environment Helen Bjørnøy when launching the managementplan for the Barents Sea).

• Total area: 2.057.826 km2

• Coastal waters 89.071 km2

• Norwegian EEZ 875.994 km2

• Fisheries management zone Svalbard 903.993 km2

• Fisheries management zone Jan Mayen 288.768 km2

MAREANO is filling knowledge gaps related to seabed conditions and biodiversity

defined in

“The Integrated Management Plan for the Marine Environment of the Barents Sea

and the Sea Areas off the Lofoten Islands” presented by the Government in 2006.

The management plan was revised 2010/2011

Results from MAREANO contributed substantially to the revision and to the new

strategy for management of human activities such as fishing, oil and gas

exploitation, and shipping.

Priority mapping areas are located along the shelf break, on the continental shelf

and in areas close to the Russian border in the east.

In the Management Plan these areas are regarded as being especially

ecologically important and vulnerable.

Sea mapping in MAREANO 2005-2010

65 000 km2

Valuable and sensitive areas

identified by the IBMP

Expectations to MAREANO from the government

Provide better knowledge about bottom conditions in areas covered by the

management planes

Provide increased knowledge of ecologically important bottom communities

as coral reefs and sponges.

Contribute to systematic evaluation of which marine biotopes/naturtyper in

the Barents sea and area outside that should have the status as threatened

and vulnerable.

Mapping of the seabed including vulnerable bottom communities

The MAREANO-programmet should have as goal to map and conduct basic

studies of the physical biological and chemical environment of the seabed

and systematize the information in an area database for Norwegian coast-

and sea areas.

Habitats and their communities comes in many scales

and definitions

What is relevant to management?

Isopods on polychaet tubes

Red fish among corals

Legal obligation: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has three main

goals:

-conservation of biological diversity;

-sustainable use of its components; and

-fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

Its objective is to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable

use of biological diversity.

Selection of MPAs involves a broad documentation of biodiversity including:

Productivity - size class distribution

Uniqueness- rare species

Biodiversity- macro-, mega-fauna

Vulnerability – degree of threat sensitivity

Scientific reference- long series, baseline

S. Derous

Landscapes and habitats What bottomfauna to

document?

Different fauna differ

in response

What environment

allows for sampling

of bottom fauna?

Different habitats

allow for different

sampling

Professionalization > special focus and preferences >

“My fauna group”, “my gear”, “my pet environmental problem”………

Standardization: get cheep, easy and comparable data > Standard type

and size gear is recommended > only part of the fauna is monitored>

only certain bottom types can be monitored > only certain patchiness is documented

Local environmental setting > focus on only a familiar marine habitats

Habitats and organisms should be mapped and monitored in a

manner that corresponds to: their importance for a resilient,

healthy and rich ecosystems, and their vulnerability to human

impact

We know what we know, but

what about the rest?

Some sources of “tunnel vision”

What substratum can

we sample and who

lives there?

On the shelf 40-300 m depth ~80 % is

dominated by sand, gravel or boulders

Muddy sediments are rare on the shelf and covers 10-20%

Infauna dominates the muddy

substratum and is documented

using grab, box corer or multi corer

Hard bottom Soft bottom

Epifauna

Sesile and mobile:

Sponges corals

echinoderms, ….

Mainly filter feeders

Infauna og epifauna

Burrowing and mobile:

polychaets, molluscs,

crustaceans….

Mainly deposit feeders

Benthos and habitat

Nord

fjord

Langangsfj.

Gro

osefj.

Topdals

fj.

Kra

gerø

fj.

Sandnesfj.

Yttre

Eid

angerfj.

Indre

Eid

angerfj.

Bre

ivik

fj.

Ærø

ydypet

Grå

holm

dypet

Ostracoda

O2 minimum siste 5 år

Mysidacea

Tanaidacea

Isopoda

Cumacea

Decapoda

Amphipoda

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Nord

fjord

Langangsfj.

Gro

osefj.

Topdals

fj.

Kra

gerø

fj.

Sandnesfj.

Yttre

Eid

angerfj.

Indre

Eid

angerfj.

Bre

ivik

fj.

Ærø

ydypet

Grå

holm

dypet

O2 minimum siste 5 år

Echinodermata

Molusca

Crustacea

Polychaeta

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Klitgaard-Kristensen, D. & Buhl-Mortensen, L. 1999. Benthic foraminifera along an offshore-fjord

gradient: a comparison with amphipods and molluscs. Journal of Natural History 33:317-350.

Buhl-Mortensen, L. Aure, J. Alve, E., Oug, E. & Husum K. 2006. Effects of hypoxia on fjordfauna:

The bottomfauna and environment in fjords on the Skagerrak coast [in Norwegian]. Fisken og Havet

3:108 p.

Where they live and what resources they use

decides their response to different environments.

Different part of the fauna responds different to the environment

Fauna mobility and size affects their ambit (action

range) and thus their response to habitat

heterogeneity at different scale.

Infauna groups

Hypoxia response

Hyperfauna crustacea

Hypoxia response

Taxonomical groups

Respons to organic load

The MAREANO-concept

1

• Bottom topography and landscape • SKSK deliver detailed topography maps based on survey with multibeam echo sounder

2

• Sediment and fine scale topography and pollutants • NGU deliver sediment maps based on: signals from multibeam echo sounder (SKSK), video

(IMR) and sediment samples (NGU and IMR)

• NGU deliver terrain analysis based on topography maps (SKSK)

3

• Natural recourses, species, biomass and community • IMR deliver maps on occurrence of nature recourses species, biomass and communities

based on information from video (IMR), sampling with grab, sledge and beam trawl (IMR).

4

• ”Naturtyper” Biotopes • IMR and NGU develop a model on the relation between occurrence of nature resources

and bottom environment to generate ”naturtypekart ” habitat maps and to predict the occurrence og similar areas. The model is based on multivariate analysis of the relation between the distribution of nature resource (bottom fauna community, biodiversity, indicator species) and bottom environment (fin scale topography, sediment, depth water masses).

Multibeam mapping

(bathymetry and backscatter for 100% seabed

area)

Video surveys

(visual documentation of ~0,2%

seabed area)

Biological/Geological

Sampling

(at ~25% of video locations)

3. Sampling

Sampling stations for ground -truthing

of biology and geology 2-3 st /1000

km2

2. Selecting

Selecting transects for video

documentation (10/ 1000 km2)

700 m long covering ~1500 m2 each

1. Multibeam

Multibeam mapping covering total

areas ½-1 year before mapping

biology and geology

Mapping procedure

Mapping bottom fauna with focus on distribution and diversity in relation to environment requires many gears and approaches

Video-transect: Covers 1500-3000 m2 (1 km long transect). Shows distribution of

bottom types and megafauna (> 2 cm) and provides documentation of tracks

of trawls both on the bottom and fauna.

Grab: Cover 0,5 m2 (2 x 0,25 m2 samples per station). Documents the occurrence

of smaller organisms (0,5-5 cm) living in soft sediment.

Epibenthic-sled: Cover 300-400 m2. Provides occurrence and composition of

hyperbenthos, crustacean-fauna living in the uppermost part of the sediment

or swimming just above the bottom (shrimps, mysids, amphipods etc).

Beam trawl: Cover 500-800 m2. Shows the occurrence of macro- and

megafauna, especially the larger organisms living in the upper part of the

sediment.

CAMPOD

• Towed / drifted / parked

• 2 video cameras (CCD. and HD)

• Hard-disc recording

• Lights (2x400W HMI)

• Depth sensor

• CTD. Current meter. Turbidity

• Altimeter

• Laser scale

• Transponder

Video

investigation

Towed gear

Epibenthic sled

(R-P sled)

Samples crustacean

fauna hyperbenthos

Beam trawl

Sampling epibenthos,

larger organisms

megabenthos

Infauna and sediment samplers

van Veen grabb 0,25 m2

Best on muddy sediments but if large also on sandy

and gravely sediments

Boxcorer

Mainly for muddy

bottoms

Depth regions

Mainly gravelly sand. Varied

and rich fauna with sponges

and meadows of cauliflower

coral. Temperature > 0,5 °C.

Mainly level sandy mud, with

some rugged areas in

connection with canyons and

ridges. Temperature: -0,5 to

0,5 °C. Transition sone with

examples of shallower and

deeper fauna. Umbellula,

Bythocaris.

Mainly level sandy mud, with

some rugged areas in

connection with canyons and

ridges Stable cold water -0,5

to -1,1°C. Rhizocrinus,

Ophiopleura, Hymenaster,

Elpidia.

Level muddy bottom with

high densities of

foraminiferans. Stable cold

water -0,5 to -1,1°C. Kolga,

Pourtalesia, Glass sponges.

Continental shelf break and upper slope (230-700m).

Mid-slope (700-1000m).

Deep-sea plain (>2400m).

Lower slope (1000-2400m).

Example of species richness in samples provided by different gears from

different bottom types

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

BT1 BT2 BT3 BT4 BT5 BT6

SEPIFAUNA

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

2,5

3,0

3,5


H'

0,00

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

0,80

0,90

1,00


J

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35


ES(120)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120


SHYPERFAUNA

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

2,5

3,0

3,5


H'

0,00

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

0,80

0,90


J

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45


ES(240)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140


SINFAUNA

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

2,5

3,0

3,5

4,0

4,5

5,0


H'

0,00

0,20

0,40

0,60

0,80

1,00

1,20


J

0

10

20

30

40

50

60


ES(100)

Populating the biotopes identified by megafauna/environment analysis

based on video observations

EPIFAUNA HYPERFAUNA INFAUNA

Diversity in the six biotopes (BT1-BT6) representing a gradient in habitat heterogeneity on the Tromsøflaket. Habitat complexity and bottom fauna composition at different scales on the continental shelf and slope of northern Norway. L. Buhl-Mortensen, P. Buhl-Mortensen, M.F.J. Dolan, J. Dannheim, V. Bellec and B. Holte (2012) Hydrobiologia .

S: Number of species

H’: Shannons index

J: evenness

ES: expected no. species

In the MAREANO database a total of >1500 taxa ( >1000 at

species level) are registered.

Many are new to the area, some are new to Norwegian shelf

and some are un described new species.

MAREANO has documented new distribution for 103 species on

the shelf. With the exception for 5 species the distribution is

mowed further north.

Thank you for your attention