A year in hypoxia: epibenthic community responses to severe oxygen deficit at a subsea observatory in a coastal inlet

Changes in ocean ventilation driven by climate change result in loss of oxygen in the open ocean that, in turn, affects coastal areas in upwelling zones such as the northeast Pacific. Saanich Inlet, on the west coast of Canada, is a natural seasonally hypoxic fjord where certain continental shelf species occur in extreme hypoxia. One study site on the VENUS cabled subsea network is located in the hypoxic zone at 104 m depth. Photographs of the same 5 m2 area were taken with a remotely-controlled still camera every 2/3 days between October 6th 2009 and October 18th 2010 and examined for community composition, species behaviour and microbial mat features. Instruments located on a near-by platform provided high-resolution measurements of environmental variables. We applied multivariate ordination methods and a principal coordinate analysis of neighbour matrices to determine temporal structures in our dataset. Responses to seasonal hypoxia (0.1–1.27 ml/l) and its high variability on short t...

气候变化驱动的海洋通风变化导致开阔大洋溶解氧流失，进而影响东北太平洋等上升流区的近岸海域。位于加拿大西海岸的萨尼奇湾（Saanich Inlet）是天然的季节性低氧峡湾，部分大陆架物种在此会遭遇极端低氧环境。VENUS有线海底观测网络上的一处研究站位设于104米水深的低氧区。2009年10月6日至2010年10月18日期间，研究人员每隔2/3天使用遥控静态相机对同一5平方米的区域进行拍摄，并针对生物群落组成、物种行为及微生物席特征开展分析。邻近平台搭载的仪器可对环境变量进行高分辨率监测。本研究采用多元排序方法及邻域矩阵主坐标分析，以解析数据集的时间结构特征，以及对季节性低氧（0.1–1.27 ml/l）及其短期高变异性的响应……