Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:52:49.021Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temperature shocks and ecological implications at a cold-water coral reef

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2012

Damien Guihen ,
Martin White  and
Tomas Lundälv
Damien Guihen*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland Damien Guihen is now at the British Antarctic Survey
Martin White
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Tomas Lundälv
Affiliation:
Sven Lovén Centre of Marine Sciences-Tjärnö, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: D. Guihen, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Continuous long-term measurements of temperature, salinity and current velocity, have been recorded over 44 months at the Tisler Reef. The Tisler Reef is a 2 km long cold-water coral reef on the sill of the Kosterfjord, located in the north-eastern Skagerrak, Norway. The reef comprises principally Lophelia pertusa, at depths between 70 and 160 m, and is an important habitat for sponge, crustacean and fish species including a number of species of commercial importance. Analysis of the current velocity data has identified a number of features such as flow reversals. These reversals in flow direction are often associated with significant changes in bottom temperature. During the autumn months of 2006 and 2008, a series of large and rapid increases in bottom temperature were observed, with temperatures seen to rise by approximately 4°C in a 24 hour period on both occasions. The occurrence of the 2006 and 2008 events corresponded with the observation of mass mortality in the long-lived sponge Geodia baretti. Historical temperature records from the region suggest that these temperature shocks are uncharacteristically high. The temperatures observed at the reef exceed the typical short-term physiological limits of L. pertusa thus future temperature shock events may have a swift and negative impact on the cold-water coral reef ecosystems of the Skagerrak.

Keywords

cold-water coralTisler Reeftemperature shockLophelia pertusaGeodia barrettiSkagerrak
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 5 , August 2012 , e68
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bowerbank, J. (1858) On the anatomy and physiology of the Spongiadae. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London 148, 279–332.Google Scholar
Dahlgren, T., Wiklund, H., Kallstrom, B., Lundalv, T., Smith, C. and Glover, A. (2006) A shallow-water whale-fall experiment in the North Atlantic. Cahiers De Biologie Marine 47, 385–389.Google Scholar
Dodds, L., Roberts, J., Taylor, A. and Marubini, F. (2007) Metabolic tolerance of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) to temperature and dissolved oxygen change. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 349, 205–214.Google Scholar
Fosså, J., Mortensen, P. and Furevik, D. (2002) The deep-water coral Lophelia pertusa in Norwegian waters: distribution and fishery impacts. Hydrobiologia 471, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freiwald, A., Fosså, J., Grehan, A. and Koslow, T. (2004) Cold-water coral reefs. Cambridge: UNEP–WCMC.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, B. (1999) High frequency variability of the surface layers in the Skagerrak during SKAGEX. Continental Shelf Research 19, 1021–1047.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, F., Rapp, H. and Reitner, J. (2006) Monitoring microbial community composition by fluorescence in situ hybridization during cultivation of the marine cold-water sponge Geodia barretti . Marine Biotechnology 8, 373–379.Google Scholar
Hogg, M., Tendal, O.S., Conway, K.W., Pomponi, S.A., van Soest, R.W.M., Gutt, J., Krautter, M. and Roberts, J.M. (2010) Deep-sea sponge grounds: reservoirs of biodiversity. UNEP–WCMC Biodiversity Series No. 32. Cambridge: UNEP–WCMC.Google Scholar
Hurrell, J. (1995) Decadal trends in the North-Atlantic Oscillation—regional temperatures and precipitation. Science 269, 676–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007) Climate Change 2007: synthesis report. Geneva: IPCC.Google Scholar
Klitgaard, A. and Tendal, O. (2004) Distribution and species composition of mass occurrences of large-sized sponges in the northeast Atlantic. Progress In Oceanography 61, 57–98.Google Scholar
Lavaleye, M., Duineveld, G., Lundälv, T., White, M., Guihen, D., Kiriakoulakis, K. and Wolff, G.A. (2009) Cold-water corals on the Tisler Reef: preliminary observations on the dynamic reef environment. Oceanography 22, 76–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lidgren, G. and Bohlin, L. (1988) Studies of Swedish marine organisms, part X. Biologically active compounds from the marine sponge Geodia baretti . Journal of Natural Products 51, 1277–1280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, C., de Fatima Borges, M. and Svendsen, E. (2001) A regime shift in the North Sea circa 1988 linked to changes in the North Sea horse mackerel fishery. Fisheries Research 50, 163–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J., Wheeler, A. and Freiwald, A. (2006) Reefs of the deep: the biology and geology of cold-water coral ecosystems. Science 312, 543–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, J.M., Wheeler, J., Freiwald, A. and Cairns, S. (2009) Cold-water corals: the biology and geology of deep-sea coral habitats. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodhe, J. (1996) On the dynamics of the large-scale circulation of the Skagerrak. Journal of Sea Research 35, 9–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stigebrandt, A. (1983) A model for the exchange of water and salt between the Baltic and the Skagerrak. Journal of Physical Oceanography 13, 411–427.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Aken, H. (2010) Meteorological forcing of long-term temperature variations of the Dutch coastal waters. Journal of Sea Research 63, 143–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oevelen, D., Duineveld, G. and Lavaleye, M. (2009) The cold-water coral community as a hot spot for carbon cycling on continental margins: a food-web analysis from Rockall Bank (northeast Atlantic). Limnology and Oceanography 54, 1829–1844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voultsiadou, E. and Vafidis, D. (2004) Rare sponge (Porifera: Demosponglae) species from the Mediterranean Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 84, 593–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, H., Purser, A., Thomsen, L., Jesus, C.C. and Lundälv, T. (2011) Particulate organic matter fluxes and hydrodynamics at the Tisler cold-water coral reef. Journal of Marine Systems 85, 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winther, N. and Johannessen, J. (2006) North Sea circulation: Atlantic inflow and its destination. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 111, C12018. DOI:10.1029/2005JC003310.Google Scholar
Wisshak, M. and Ruggeberg, A. (2006) Colonisation and bioerosion of experimental substrates by benthic foraminiferans from euphotic to aphotic depths (Kosterfjord, SW Sweden). Facies 52, 1–17.Google Scholar