Spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity induced by internal tides influences faunal patterns on vertical walls within a submarine canyon

• DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1091855
• Publication Date: 2023-03-29T05:44:08Z
• Authors: Tabitha R. R. Pea...; Katleen Robert; Alexander Callaway; Rob A. Hall; Furu Mienis; Claudio Lo Iacono; Veerle A. I. Huvenne
• Keywords: Submarine canyon; Internal tide

Vertical walls of submarine canyons represent features high conservation value that can provide natural areas protection for vulnerable marine ecosystems under increasing anthropogenic pressure from deep-sea trawling. Wall assemblages are spatially heterogeneous, attributed to the environmental heterogeneity over short spatial scales is a typical feature canyons. Effective management and these requires deeper understanding processes affect faunal distribution patterns. Canyons recognised as sites intensified hydrodynamic regimes, with focused internal tides enhancing near-bed currents, turbulent mixing nepheloid layer production, which influence Faunal patterns also respond broad-scale hydrodynamics gradients in water mass properties (e.g. temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration). Oscillating tidal currents advect such gradients, both vertically horizontally along canyon's walls. Here we take an interdisciplinary approach using biological, bathymetry-derived datasets undertake high-resolution analysis subset wall within Whittard Canyon, North-East Atlantic. We investigate if, what extent, diversity epibenthic on canyon be explained by temporal variability induced tides. displacement tide was calculated autonomous ocean glider shipboard CTD observations. Spatial assemblage structure were determined cluster non-metric Multi-Dimensional Scaling plots. Canonical Redundancy Analysis Generalised Linear Models then used explore relationships between variety variables. Our results support hypothesis generating consequently likely food supply.