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Special issue The Weddell Sea and the ocean off Dronning Maud Land: unique oceanographic conditions shape circumpolar and global processes – a multi-disciplinary study (OS/BG/TC inter-journal SI).-- 30 pages, 5 figures.-- Data availability: The data (sets) used for the illustrations in some figures are referenced in the figure captions: bathymetry (water depth) in Fig. 1 (Dorschel et al., 2022); bathymetry in Figs. 2a and 3 (Arndt et al., 2013); and sea ice, chlorophyll, and temperature in Fig. 4 (Lavergne et al., 2019, and http://oceandata.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/, last access: 23 August 2022). No addition data sets were used in this publication, Systematic long-term studies on ecosystem dynamics are largely lacking from the East Antarctic Southern Ocean, although it is well recognized that they are indispensable to identify the ecological impacts and risks of environmental change. Here, we present a framework for establishing a long-term cross-disciplinary study on decadal timescales. We argue that the eastern Weddell Sea and the adjacent sea to the east, off Dronning Maud Land, is a particularly well suited area for such a study, since it is based on findings from previous expeditions to this region. Moreover, since climate and environmental change have so far been comparatively muted in this area, as in the eastern Antarctic in general, a systematic long-term study of its environmental and ecological state can provide a baseline of the current situation, which will be important for an assessment of future changes from their very onset, with consistent and comparable time series data underpinning and testing models and their projections. By establishing an Integrated East Antarctic Marine Research (IEAMaR) observatory, long-term changes in ocean dynamics, geochemistry, biodiversity, and ecosystem functions and services will be systematically explored and mapped through regular autonomous and ship-based synoptic surveys. An associated long-term ecological research (LTER) programme, including experimental and modelling work, will allow for studying climate-driven ecosystem changes and interactions with impacts arising from other anthropogenic activities. This integrative approach will provide a level of long-term data availability and ecosystem understanding that are imperative to determine, understand, and project the consequences of climate change and support a sound science-informed management of future conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean, Stefanie Arndt, Heike Link and Christoph Held have received financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the priority programme 1158 “Antarctic Research with Comparative Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas”. The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

Thirty-seven holothuroid species, including six potentially new, are reported from the eastern Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Information regarding sea cucumbers in this dataset is based on Agassiz Trawl (AGT) samples collected during the British Antarctic Survey cruise JR275 on the RRS James Clark Ross in the austral summer of 2012. Species presence by site and an appendix of holothuroid identifications with registrations are included as supplementary material. Species occurrence in the Weddell Sea is updated to include new holothuroids from this expedition.

International audience; Multiple initiatives have called for large-scale representative networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs should be ecologically representative to be effective, but in large, remote regions this can be difficult to quantify and assess. We present a novel bioregionalization for the Southern Ocean, which uses the modelled circumpolar habitat importance of 17 marine bird and mammal species. The habitat-use of these predators indicates biodiversity patterns that require representation in Southern Ocean conservation and management planning. In the predator habitat importance predictions, we identified 17 statistical clusters, falling into four larger groups. We characterized and contrasted these clusters based on their predator, prey and oceanographic characteristics. Under the existing Southern Ocean MPA network, some clusters fall short of 10 % representation, yet others meet or exceed these targets. Implementation of currently proposed MPAs can in some cases contribute to meeting even 30 % spatial coverage conservation targets. However, the effectiveness of mixed-use versus no-take MPAs should be taken into consideration, since some clusters are not adequately represented by no-take MPAs. These results, combined with previous studies in the Southern Ocean, can help inform the continued design, implementation, and evaluation of a representative system of MPAs for Southern Ocean conservation and management.

The current and projected environmental change of the Arctic Ocean contrasts sharply with the limited knowledge of its genetic biodiversity. Polar cod Boreogadus saida (Lepechin, 1774) is an abundant circumpolar marine fish and ecological key species. The central role of polar cod in the Arctic marine food web warrants a better understanding of its population structure and connectivity. In this study, the genetic population structure of 171 juveniles, collected from several fjords off West-Svalbard (Billefjorden, Hornsund and Kongsfjorden), the northern Sophia Basin and the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, was analysed using nine DNA microsatellite loci. Genetic analyses indicated moderate to high genetic diversity, but absence of spatial population structure and isolation-by-distance, suggesting ongoing gene flow between the studied sampling regions. High levels of connectivity may be key for polar cod to maintain populations across wide spatial scales. The adaptive capacity of the species will be increasingly important to face challenges such as habitat fragmentation, ocean warming and changes in prey composition. In view of a limited understanding of the population dynamics and evolution of polar cod, a valuable next step to predict future developments should be an integrated biological evaluation, including population genomics, a life-history approach, and habitat and biophysical dispersal modelling. ispartof: JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY vol:99 issue:1 pages:49-60 ispartof: location:England status: published

The iterative nature of ecomorphological diversification is observed in various groups of animals. However, studies explicitly testing the consistency of morphological variation across and within species are scarce. Antarctic notothenioids represent a textbook example of adaptive radiation in marine fishes. Within Nototheniidae, the endemic Antarctic genus Trematomus consists of 15 extant species, some with documented large intraspecific variability. Here, we quantify head shape disparity in 11 species of Trematomus by landmark-based geometric morphometrics, and we illustrate repeated events of divergence and convergence of their head morphology. Taking advantage of the polymorphism observed in some species of Trematomus, we also show that two closely related species or clades (e.g., Trematomus bernacchii and T. hansoni) are characterised by the same level of morphological disparity as observed at the level of the entire genus. Interestingly, the same main axes of shape variation are shared between and within species, indicating repeated morphological diversification. Overall, we illustrate a similarity of intra- and interspecific patterns of phenotypic diversity providing new insights into the mechanisms that underlie the diversification of Antarctic fishes.

Sea stars (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) are a key component of Southern Ocean benthos, with 16% of the known sea star species living there. In temperate marine environments, sea stars commonly play an important role in food webs, acting as keystone species. However, trophic ecology and functional role of Southern Ocean sea stars are still poorly known, notably due to the scarcity of large-scale studies. Here, we report 24332 trophic marker (stable isotopes and elemental contents of C, N and S of tegument and/or tube feet) and biometric (arm length, disk radius, arm to disk ratio) measurements in 2456 specimens of sea stars. Samples were collected between 12/01/1985 and 08/10/2017 in numerous locations along the Antarctic littoral and Subantarctic islands. The spatial scope of the dataset covers a significant portion of the Southern Ocean (Latitude: 47.717° South to 86.273° South; longitude: 127.767° West to 162.201° East; depth: 6 to 5338 m). The dataset contains 133 distinct taxa, including 72 currently accepted species spanning 51 genera, 20 families and multiple feeding guilds / functional groups (suspension feeders, sediment feeders, omnivores, predators of mobile or sessile prey). For 505 specimens, mitochondrial CO1 genes were sequenced to confirm and/or refine taxonomic identifications, and those sequences are already publicly available through the Barcode of Life Data System. This number will grow in the future, as molecular analyses are still in progress. Overall, thanks to its large taxonomic, spatial, and temporal extent, as well as its integrative nature (combining genetic, morphological and ecological data), this dataset can be of wide interest to Southern Ocean ecologists, invertebrate zoologists, benthic ecologists, and environmental managers dealing with associated areas. Please cite this data paper in research products derived from the dataset, which is freely available without copyright restrictions.

Background: Genome-wide data are invaluable to characterize differentiation and adaptation of natural populations. Reduced representation sequencing (RRS) subsamples a genome repeatedly across many individuals. However, RRS requires careful optimization and fine-tuning to deliver high marker density while being cost-efficient. The number of genomic fragments created through restriction enzyme digestion and the sequencing library setup must match to achieve sufficient sequencing coverage per locus. Here, we present a workflow based on published information and computational and experimental procedures to investigate and streamline the applicability of RRS. Results: In an iterative process genome size estimates, restriction enzymes and size selection windows were tested and scaled in six classes of Antarctic animals (Ostracoda, Malacostraca, Bivalvia, Asteroidea, Actinopterygii, Aves). Achieving high marker density would be expensive in amphipods, the malacostracan target taxon, due to the large genome size. We propose alternative approaches such as mitogenome or target capture sequencing for this group. Pilot libraries were sequenced for all other target taxa. Ostracods, bivalves, sea stars, and fish showed overall good coverage and marker numbers for downstream population genomic analyses. In contrast, the bird test library produced low coverage and few polymorphic loci, likely due to degraded DNA. Conclusions: Prior testing and optimization are important to identify which groups are amenable for RRS and where alternative methods may currently offer better cost-benefit ratios. The steps outlined here are easy to follow for other non-model taxa with little genomic resources, thus stimulating efficient resource use for the many pressing research questions in molecular ecology., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The calving of A-68, the 5,800-km2, 1-trillion-ton iceberg shed from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in July 2017, is one of over 10 significant ice-shelf loss events in the past few decades resulting from rapid warming around the Antarctic Peninsula. The rapid thinning, retreat, and collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula are harbingers of warming effects around the entire continent. Ice shelves cover more than 1.5 million km2 and fringe 75% of Antarctica's coastline, delineating the primary connections between the Antarctic continent, the continental ice, and the Southern Ocean. Changes in Antarctic ice shelves bring dramatic and large-scale modifications to Southern Ocean ecosystems and continental ice movements, with global-scale implications. The thinning and rate of future ice-shelf demise is notoriously unpredictable, but models suggest increased shelf-melt and calving will become more common. To date, little is known about sub-ice-shelf ecosystems, and our understanding of ecosystem change following collapse and calving is predominantly based on responsive science once collapses have occurred. In this review, we outline what is known about (a) ice-shelf melt, volume loss, retreat, and calving, (b) ice-shelf-associated ecosystems through sub-ice, sediment-core, and pre-collapse and post-collapse studies, and (c) ecological responses in pelagic, sympagic, and benthic ecosystems. We then discuss major knowledge gaps and how science might address these gaps. This article is categorized under: Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Modeling Species and Community Interactions.

International audience; Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change1,2. Mitigation requires the identification and protection of Areas of Ecological Significance (AESs), which have so far not been determined at the ocean-basin scale. Here, using assemblage-level tracking of marine predators, we identify AESs for this globally important region and assess current threats and protection levels. Integration of more than 4,000 tracks from 17 bird and mammal species reveals AESs around sub-Antarctic islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and over the Antarctic continental shelf. Fishing pressure is disproportionately concentrated inside AESs, and climate change over the next century is predicted to impose pressure on these areas, particularly around the Antarctic continent. At present, 7.1% of the ocean south of 40°S is under formal protection, including 29% of the total AESs. The establishment and regular revision of networks of protection that encompass AESs are needed to provide long-term mitigation of growing pressures on Southern Ocean ecosystems.

A founding principle of the Antarctic Treaty is that, in the interests of all humankind, Antarctica should continue to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and should not become the scene or object of international discord. From many standpoints, Antarctica is considered as a sanctuary, and plays a pivotal role in the global system. From an ecological point of view, Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean harbor exceptional levels of biodiversity. Its ecosystems are, however, facing rapid climatic and environmental changes, and the scientific community, embodied by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), have identified the urgent need to understand the potential responses of these ecosystems. Such questions are extremely complex, as biodiversity, here defined as “the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems” (Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992), can vary at many different spatio-temporal scales and levels of biological organization, from molecules to entire ecosystems.

Microbial organisms - including Archaea, Bacteria and unicellular Eukaryota - collectively dominate the Earth in terms of bio- and functional diversity. Their study, often constrained by technology, has strongly benefited from the recent advancements in high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques. The vast amounts of microbial data generated in the wake of these developments, however, remains severely underrepresented on open access biodiversity data repositories (e.g. the Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF). Moreover, when sequencing data has been made publicly available, is often poorly annotated with metadata and environmental variables, making it difficult to find or query. Therefore, the microbial Antarctic Resource System (mARS) aims to fill this lacuna by documenting and geo-referencing microbial datasets and linking the sequence data in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) repositories with the associated environmental measurements on mARS, which is aimed to be interoperable with both INSDC and GBIF. This way, mARS helps to preserve environmental data and the metadata that is crucial for the correct processing and interpretation of sequence data, while it also connects researchers via its webportal to the existing wealth of molecular information, and allows these datasets to be more effectively accessed. Given the general complexity of microbial ecological datasets, mARS needs to operate between different data archiving standards, such as MIxS (see https://press3.mcs.anl.gov/gensc/mixs/), which is oriented towards DNA sequence data, and the biodiversity-based DarwinCore standard. Currently, mARS tries to address the challenges of integrating microbial data with these existing systems as well as connecting with the communities behind them, by documenting the datasets on GBIF's extensions or investigate the feasibility of routinely processing raw sequence data into occurrence datasets using the open computing facilities offered by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's (EMBL) MGnify resource.

The Antarctic Biodiversity portal (biodiversity.aq) is a gateway to a wide variety of Antarctic biodiversity information and tools. Launched in 2005 as the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) - Marine Biodiversity Information Network (SCAR-MarBIN, scarmarbin.be) and the Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS, marinespecies.org/rams/), the system has grown in scope from purely marine to include terrestrial information. Biodiversity.aq is a SCAR product, currently supported by Belspo (Belgian Science Policy) as one of the Belgian contributions to the European Lifewatch-European Research Infrastructure Consortium (Lifewatch-ERIC). The goal of Lifewatch is to provide access to: distributed observatories/sensor networks; interoperable databases, existing (data-)networks, using accepted standards; high performance computing (HPC) and grid power, including the use of the state-of-the-art of cloud and big data paradigm technologies; software and tools for visualization, analysis and modeling. Here we provide an overview of the most recent advances in the biodiversity.aq online ecosystem, a number of use cases as well as an overview of future directions. Some of the most notable components are: The Register of Antarctic Species (RAS, ras.biodiversity.aq) is a component of the Lifewatch Taxonomic Backbone and provides an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine and terrestrial species in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It serves as a reference guide for users to interpret taxonomic literature, as valid names and other names in use are both provided. Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT, ipt.biodiversity.aq) allows disseminating Antarctic biodiversity data into global initiatives such as the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS, obis.org) as Antarctic node of OBIS (Ant-OBIS, also formerly known as SCAR-MarBIN) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, gbif.org) as Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (AntaBIF). Data that can be made available include metadata, species checklists, species occurrence data and more recently, sampling event-based data. Data from these international portals can be accessed through data.biodiversity.aq. The Register of Antarctic Species (RAS, ras.biodiversity.aq) is a component of the Lifewatch Taxonomic Backbone and provides an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine and terrestrial species in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It serves as a reference guide for users to interpret taxonomic literature, as valid names and other names in use are both provided. Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT, ipt.biodiversity.aq) allows disseminating Antarctic biodiversity data into global initiatives such as the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS, obis.org) as Antarctic node of OBIS (Ant-OBIS, also formerly known as SCAR-MarBIN) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, gbif.org) as Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (AntaBIF). Data that can be made available include metadata, species checklists, species occurrence data and more recently, sampling event-based data. Data from these international portals can be accessed through data.biodiversity.aq. Through SCAR, Biodiversity.aq builds on an international network of expert that provide expert knowledge on taxonomy, species distribution,and ecology. It provides a strong and tested platform for sharing, integrating, discovering and analysing Antarctic biodiversity information originating from a variety of sources into a distributed system.

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets and accompanying syntheses provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, support modelling of predator distributions under future climate scenarios and create inputs that can be incorporated into decision making processes by management authorities. In this data paper, we present the compiled tracking data from research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. The data are publicly available through biodiversity.aq and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The archive includes tracking data from over 70 contributors across 12 national Antarctic programs, and includes data from 17 predator species, 4060 individual animals, and over 2.9 million observed locations., Measurement(s)geographic locationTechnology Type(s)digital curationFactor Type(s)temporal interval • geographic locationSample Characteristic – OrganismAptenodytes forsteri • Lobodon carcinophaga • Eudyptes chrysolophus • Thalassarche melanophrys • Phoebetria palpebrata • Aptenodytes patagonicus • Pygoscelis adeliae • Leptonychotes weddellii • Megaptera novaeangliae • Mirounga leonina • Arctocephalus gazella • Thalassoica antarctica • Eudyptes schlegeli • Diomedea exulans • Phoebetria fusca • Diomedea chrysostoma • Procellaria aequinoctialisSample Characteristic – Environmentpolar biomeSample Characteristic – LocationAntarctica Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11688876

Understanding the energy flux through food webs is important for estimating the capacity of marine ecosystems to support stocks of living resources. The energy density of species involved in trophic energy transfer has been measured in a large number of small studies, scattered over a 40-year publication record. Here, we reviewed energy density records of Southern Ocean zooplankton, nekton and several benthic taxa, including previously unpublished data. Comparing measured taxa, energy densities were highest in myctophid fishes (ranging from 17.1 to 39.3 kJ g−1 DW), intermediate in crustaceans (7.1 to 25.3 kJ g−1 DW), squid (16.2 to 24.0 kJ g−1 DW) and other fish families (14.8 to 29.9 kJ g−1 DW), and lowest in jelly fish (10.8 to 18.0 kJ g−1 DW), polychaetes (9.2 to 14.2 kJ g−1 DW) and chaetognaths (5.0–11.7 kJ g−1 DW). Data reveals differences in energy density within and between species related to size, age and other life cycle parameters. Important taxa in Antarctic food webs, such as copepods, squid and small euphausiids, remain under-sampled. The variability in energy density of Electrona antarctica was likely regional rather than seasonal, although for many species with limited data it remains difficult to disentangle regional and seasonal variability. Models are provided to estimate energy density more quickly using a species’ physical parameters. It will become increasingly important to close knowledge gaps to improve the ability of bioenergetic and food web models to predict changes in the capacity of Antarctic ecosystems to support marine life. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00227-018-3386-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Reliable statements about variability and change in marine ecosystems and their underlying causes are needed to report on their status and to guide management. Here we use the Framework on Ocean Observing (FOO) to begin developing ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (eEOVs) for the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). An eEOV is a defined biological or ecological quantity, which is derived from field observations, and which contributes significantly to assessments of Southern Ocean ecosystems. Here, assessments are concerned with estimating status and trends in ecosystem properties, attribution of trends to causes, and predicting future trajectories. eEOVs should be feasible to collect at appropriate spatial and temporal scales and are useful to the extent that they contribute to direct estimation of trends and/or attribution, and/or development of ecological (statistical or simulation) models to support assessments. In this paper we outline the rationale, including establishing a set of criteria, for selecting eEOVs for the SOOS and develop a list of candidate eEOVs for further evaluation. Other than habitat variables, nine types of eEOVs for Southern Ocean taxa are identified within three classes: state (magnitude, genetic/species, size spectrum), predator–prey (diet, foraging range), and autecology (phenology, reproductive rate, individual growth rate, detritus). Most candidates for the suite of Southern Ocean taxa relate to state or diet. Candidate autecological eEOVs have not been developed other than for marine mammals and birds. We consider some of the spatial and temporal issues that will influence the adoption and use of eEOVs in an observing system in the Southern Ocean, noting that existing operations and platforms potentially provide coverage of the four main sectors of the region — the East and West Pacific, Atlantic and Indian. Lastly, we discuss the importance of simulation modelling in helping with the design of the observing system in the long term.Regional boundary: south of 30°S.

Mesopelagic fish are a key component of the pelagic ecosystem throughout the world’s oceans. Opening and closing nets were used to investigate patterns in the distribution and abundance of mesopelagic fish from the surface to 1000 m on a series of transects across the Scotia Sea from the ice-edge to the Antarctic Polar Front. A total of 141 non-target net hauls were undertaken during three cruises (Nov

A new fishing gear was used to sample the macrozooplankton and micronekton community in the surface layer (0-2 m) under ice and in open water, the Surface and Under Ice Trawl (SUIT). In total, 57 quantitative hauls were conducted in the Lazarev Sea (Southern Ocean) during 3 different seasons (autumn 2004, winter 2006, summer 2007/2008). At least 46 species from eight phyla were caught in all 3 seasons combined. Biomass density was dominated by Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. The average biomass density was highest under the winter sea ice and lowest under the young ice in autumn. In summer, macrozooplankton biomass was dominated by ctenophores in open water and by Antarctic krill under ice. The community composition varied significantly among seasons, and according to the presence of sea ice. The response of the community composition to the presence of sea ice was influenced by species that were significantly more abundant in open water than under ice (Cyllopus lucasii, Hyperiella dilatata), only seasonally abundant under ice (Clione antarctica), or significantly associated with sea ice (Eusirus laticarpus). A number of abundant species showed distinct diel patterns in the surface occurrence both under ice and in open water, indicating that the surface layer serves as a foraging ground predominantly at night. Our results emphasize the potential of a number of non-euphausiid macrozooplankton and micronekton species to act as energy transmitters between the production of sea ice biota and the pelagic food web. By providing a regional-scale quantitative record of macrofauna under Antarctic sea ice covering 3 seasons, this study adds new and direct evidence that the ice-water interface layer is a major functional node in the ecosystem of the Antarctic seasonal sea ice zone. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) began in 2000 as the repository for data from the Census of Marine Life. Since that time, OBIS has expanded its goals beyond simply hosting data to supporting more aspects of marine conservation (Pooter et al. 2017). In order to accomplish those goals, the OBIS secretariat in partnership with its European node (EurOBIS) hosted at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ, Belgium), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Committee on International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE, 23rd session, March 2015, Brugge) established a 2-year pilot project to address a particularly problematic issue that environmental data collected as part of marine biological research were being disassociated from the biological data. OBIS-Event-Data is the solution that was developed from that pilot project, which devised a method for keeping environmental data together with the biological data (Pooter et al. 2017). OBIS is seeking early adopters of the new data standard OBIS-Event-Data from among the marine biodiversity monitoring communities, to further validate the data standard, and develop data products and scientific applications to support the enhancement of Biological and Ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) in the framework of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO BON MBON). After the successful 2-year IODE pilot project OBIS-ENV-DATA, the IOC established a new 2-year IODE pilot project OBIS-Event-Data for Scientific Applications (2017-2019). The OBIS-Event-Data data standard, building on Darwin Core, provides a technical solution for combined biological and environmental data, and incorporates details about sampling methods and effort, including event hierarchy. It also implements standardization of parameters involved in biological, environmental, and sampling details using an international standard controlled vocabulary (British Oceanographic Data Centre Natural Environment Research Council). A workshop organized by IODE/OBIS in April brought together major animal tagging and tracking networks such as the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), the Animal Telemetry Network (ATN), the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), the European Tracking Network (ETN) and the Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP) to test the OBIS-Event-Data standard through the development of some data products and science applications. Additionally, this workshop contributes to the further maturation of the GOOS EOV on fish as well as the EOV on birds, mammals and turtles. We will present the outcomes as well as any lessons learned from this workshop on problems, solutions, and applications of using Darwin Core/OBIS-Event-Data for bio-logging data.

The Trematominae, a subfamily of the Nototheniidae, are typical of the high-Antarctic shelf waters. Within the Trematominae examples of phenotypic plasticity and possible cryptic speciation have been observed. Morphological identification of adult stages can be problematic in cases of high phenotypic plasticity or cryptic speciation. Additionally, postlarval and juvenile stages often have traits still under development and which lack distinction. A microsatellite DNA multiplex of six markers has been developed for Trematomus newnesi (Van Houdt et al. 2006). This multiplex was tested on five additional trematomid taxa: Pagothenia borchgrevinki, Trematomus bernacchii, Trematomus eulepidotus, Trematomus hansoni and Trematomus scotti. We used these six microsatellite loci to assess the genetic differentiation among species and the resolution power of these loci for individual-based assignment methods. The six species could be well discriminated by conventional methods such as principal component analysis and distance-based methods, and individual Bayesian assignment methods. This marker set can be used for a number of purposes, including the identification of eggs and larval and adult stages. It is also useful for the investigation of recent phylogenetic patterns, as well as the detection of cryptic speciation, which has been suggested for T. bernacchii and T. newnesi but never confirmed with high polymorphic genetic markers.

The distribution and abundance of larval and postlarval fishes was investigated in the Lazarev Sea, Southern Ocean, in March and April 2004. The upper 200 m of the water column were sampled with an 8 m2 rectangular midwater trawl at 93 stations. The larval species community clustered in a diverse coastal community with high densities of Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarcticum larvae and a less diverse offshore community dominated by Antarctic jonasfish Notolepis coatsi and the lanternfish Electrona antarctica. No postlarval fish were caught in coastal areas. The offshore community of postlarval fishes consisted of the deep-sea smelt Bathylagus antarcticus, and the lanternfishes Gymnoscopelus braueri, G. nicholsi and E. antarctica. The latter species clearly dominated, occurring at mean individual and wet mass densities of 0.17 individuals m–2 and 0.26 g m–2, respectively. A generalized additive model significantly related the density of postlarval E. antarctica to the abundance of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba, ocean depth and sea surface temperature. The diet of E. antarctica was dominated by copepods and euphausiid larvae. Mean energy density of E. antarctica in the upper 200 m was 2.8 kJ m–2, which is equivalent to 36% of the energy stored in Antarctic krill stocks and probably would be considerably higher if a greater depth range were considered. This suggests that E. antarctica is a major energy transmitter in the food web of the Lazarev Sea, challenging the classical krill-dominated food web paradigm of the Southern Ocean.

In order to preserve the variety of life on Earth, we must understand it better. Biodiversity research is at a pivotal point with research projects generating data at an ever increasing rate. Structuring, aggregating, linking and processing these data in a meaningful way is a major challenge. The systematic application of information management and engineering technologies in the study of biodiversity (biodiversity informatics) help transform data to knowledge. However, concerted action is required to be taken by existing e-infrastructures to develop and adopt common standards, provisions for interoperability and avoid overlapping in functionality. This would result in the unification of the currently fragmented landscape that restricts European biodiversity research from reaching its full potential. The overarching goal of this COST Action is to coordinate existing research and capacity building efforts, through a bottom-up trans-disciplinary approach, by unifying biodiversity informatics communities across Europe in order to support the long-term vision of modelling biodiversity on earth. BioUnify will: 1. specify technical requirements, evaluate and improve models for efficient data and workflow storage, sharing and re-use, within and between different biodiversity communities; 2. mobilise taxonomic, ecological, genomic and biomonitoring data generated and curated by natural history collections, research networks and remote sensing sources in Europe; 3. leverage results of ongoing biodiversity informatics projects by identifying and developing functional synergies on individual, group and project level; 4. raise technical awareness and transfer skills between biodiversity researchers and information technologists; 5. formulate a viable roadmap for achieving the long-term goals for European biodiversity informatics, which ensures alignment with global activities and translates into efficient biodiversity policy.

Icefishes of the perciform suborder Notothenioidei dominate the Antarctic ichthyo- fauna. These species originated from a benthic ancestor and do not possess a swimbladder. However, some notothenioids have achieved neutral buoyancy through skeletal reductions as well as storage of lipids to reduce body mass relative to seawater. These adaptations enable them to exploit the highly productive pelagic realm. Mobilizing these lipid reserves in periods of critically low food intake may lead to buoyancy problems. Accumulating and conserving these reserves may slow down the devel- opment of somatic and reproductive tissues and hence future reproductive output. We constructed a dynamic state variable model to investigate how ingested energy is partitioned over 3 state variables: lipid reserves, structural protein body mass and egg development. Two forms of the model differed in that lipid reserves were either included in or excluded from the total metabolic energy budget of an individual. The model was parameterised for the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarcticum, a key species in the pelagic food web of the high Antarctic zone of the Southern Ocean. In Pleura- gramma, lipids are stored in unique extracellular lipid sacs, which are thought to serve as buoyancy aids and energy reserves. The model predicts optimal habitat selection and an optimal energy allo- cation strategy by maximizing future reproductive output. The environment is simulated using verti- cal gradients in water temperature, optical properties, food availability and predation risk. The form of the model that considers lipids as metabolically inactive reserves best replicates field measure- ments of fat content and yields high values for fitness in Pleuragramma. Uncoupling fat reserves from metabolism, through the development of extracellular lipid sacs, probably represents a key adapta- tion in the evolution towards a pelagic lifestyle in a fish species with a low scope for activity.

Herring (Clupea harengus) enter and remain within North Sea estuaries during well-defined periods of their early life history. The costs and benefits of the migrations between offshore spawning grounds and upper, low-salinity zones of estuarine nurseries are identified using a dynamic state-variable model, in which the fitness of an individual is maximized by selecting the most profitable habitat. Spatio-temporal gradients in temperature, turbidity, food availability and predation risk simulate the environment. We modeled predation as a function of temperature, the optical properties of the ambient water, the time allocation of feeding and the abundance of whiting (Merlangius merlangus). Growth and metabolic costs were assessed using a bioenergetic model. Model runs using real input data for the Scheldt estuary (Belgium, The Netherlands) and the southern North Sea show that estuarine residence results in fitter individuals through a considerable increase in survival probability of age-0 fish. Young herring pay for their migration into safer estuarine water by foregoing growth opportunities at sea. We suggest that temperature and, in particular, the time lag between estuarine and seawater temperatures, acts as a basic cue for herring to navigate in the heterogeneous space between the offshore spawning grounds at sea and the oligohaline nursery zone in estuaries.

The International Polar Year (IPY) was a unprecedented effort in polar research committing thousands of participants from many nations (Carlson 2010), with a common objective: to describe and understand complex systems using multiple approaches, in an integrated fashion. IPY scientists have collected enormous amounts of data in many formats, ranging from multimedia, hourly to millennial time series, isotope ratios and fractions, energy and material fluxes, species identification and distribution patterns, disease types and rates, genetic sequences, samples identifiers, singular events and gradual processes, to sociological studies (Carlson 2011).

Intraspecific biodiversity is affected by homogenizing factors, mostly through gene flow, and differentiating factors such as mutation, genetic drift and selection. At first sight, the structure of fish populations of the Southern Ocean should be under influence of the Circumpolar Antarctic Current. Some species do indeed show evidence for strong connectivity, with genotypes being shared across the full range. However, species-specific life-history traits and local factors influence the patterns of many taxa such that distinct populations have evolved. Also global change (fishing and climate change) measurably impacts genetic structure, such that ma­nagement measures are needed. Quota systems have been implemented for some time, while the delineation of marine protected areas is in progress.

Population genetics patterns of marine fish in general and of Southern Ocean fish in particular range from virtual panmixia over ocean-wide scale to deeply fragmented populations. However the causes underlying these different patterns are not properly understood. In this paper, we tested the hypotheses that population connectivity is positively related to a combination of life history traits, namely duration of pelagic larval period and the tendency towards pelagic life style in the adulthood. To do so, we analysed the variability of six microsatellite and one mitochondrial marker (cytochrome b) in three Southern Ocean fish species (Trematomus newnesi, Trematomus hansoni and Trematomus bernacchii). They share a recent common ancestor but notably differ in their duration of pelagic larval period as well as pelagic versus benthic lifestyle. We sampled over a range of more than 5000 km for all three species and used a number of population genetics tools to investigate past and contemporary levels of connectivity. All species experienced population fluctuations, but coalescent simulations suggested that contemporary populations are in migration-drift equilibrium. Although global FST values were rather low, a significant population structure separated the High-Antarctic from the Peninsular regions in all species. The level of genetic differentiation was much lower in the pelagic versus benthic species. Present data suggest that past and present genetic structuring in the Southern Ocean are indeed related with the ecological traits of Antarctic fish, however the relative importance of individual factors remains unclear.

The composition and distribution of squid and fish collected by Rectangular Midwater Trawls in the upper 200 m were investigated during the BROKE-West (Baseline Research on Oceanography, Krill and the Environment-West) survey (January-March 2006) in CCAMLR Subdivision 58.4.2 of the Southern Ocean. A total of 332 individuals were collected, with the most abundant fish species being Pleuragramma antarcticum (34%), Notolepis coatsi (27%) and Electrona antarctica (26%); and the most abundant squid being Galiteuthis glacialis (64%). Abundances of all species were among the lowest recorded using this type of gear. Cluster analysis revealed two distinct communities: a notothenioid-dominated coastal community and an oceanic community dominated by mesopelagic fish and squid. Environmental factors related to this segregation were explored using Redundancy Analysis (RDA). The notothenioid P. antarcticum was associated with shallow areas with high chlorophyll a concentrations. Larval stages of E. antarctica, N. coatsi and G. glacialis were found over deeper water and were positively correlated with higher temperatures and a deeper-reaching mixed layer. Postmetamorphic stages of E. antarctica were caught mostly after sunset and were negatively correlated with solar elevation. The observation of higher densities in the eastern part of the sampling area reflects a temporal rather than a geographical effect. Samples of the three most abundant fishes, E. antarctica, P. antarcticum and N. coatsi, were analysed for gut content. All species fed on a variety of mesozooplankton including copepods, amphipods and euphausiids, which is consistent with previous reports on similar life stages. Mean body energy density was highest for E. antarctica (27 kJ g-1), while it was similar for P. antarcticum and N. coatsi (22 kJ g-1). The high energy content emphasizing the importance as a food resource for top predators in the Southern Ocean.

For a better understanding of the role of mesopelagic fish in the Southern Ocean food web, the energy and water content of Bathylagus antarcticus, Electrona antarctica and Gymnoscopelus braueri from the Lazarev Sea were investigated. Mean dry weight energy content of B. antarcticus (20.4 kJ g(-1)) was significantly lower than in E. antarctica and G. braueri (both 29.4 kJ g(-1)). In E. antarctica, an increase of dry weight energy density with age was evident from 26.9 kJ g(-1) in juveniles of less than 1 year of age to 32.0 kJ g(-1) in 3-year-old fish. Water content decreased with size in all three species. Abundant high-energy species such as E. antarctica are at a key position in the food web. Due to a marked influence of age on energy content, population structure can be an important variable in estimates of energy fluxes in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. ispartof: Polar biology vol:29 issue:12 pages:1045-1051 status: published

From 25-28th November thematic editors of the Register of Antarctic Species and the Register of Antarctic Marine Species met in Ostend to discuss the application of trait data in the Aphia System in the context of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic region. A mixture of terrestrial and marine expertise was represented from various countries around the world. Further experts provided input through remote participation. Participants received training in the use of the Lifewatch taxonomic backbone/WoRMS online editing tools and how to add and validate information. There were discussions on the prioritisation of traits, both in terms of those that should be added to the system as well as those that (thematic) editors should focus on adding. Eight priority data types were determined based on the need for information, the availability of data and, finally, how well these concepts were advanced within the taxonomic backbone. This includes information on habitat, mobility, holotype image and geographical information about type locality, feeding method/type and diet information, size, larval and juvenile development, data on invasive species and Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) indicator taxa. While many similar priority variables were identified between marine and terrestrial ecology, there are considerable differences, especially in the terminology and vocabulary used. Given the complexity of the task, it was also recommended to engage with the community to extend the current pool of thematic editors for all realms and taxa.