通过对北冰洋中部海底生物的详细研究，研究人员发现，水的深度和食物的多少影响着海底物种群落的结构、密度和物种数量。本项研究也是科学界第一次有证据表明，在北冰洋海底，随着深度增加，物种多样性的变化规律和温水环境非常相似。

由于漫长的冬天和永久覆盖的冰盖，生活在北冰洋中部的种群不如温水海洋繁盛。也很有人去好好观察这些海底生物群落的特征。因此，波蒂厄斯先生和他的同事把过去的调查数据与新数据综合在一起，这其中也包括了2012年，即近年来北冰洋冰盖消退最严重的一年。

研究结果正符合他们的预测：随着水越来越深和食物来源越来越少，生物的数量也越来越少。这个下降的速度比在温水海洋中快。同时，有五种不同的种群被发现，他们生活于不同的水深，包括大陆架的浅水环境，大陆坡较深的环境及四多公里深的深海平原。这和温水海洋一样，物种多样性先增多了，再随着水深越来越深而降低。

在这个偏远的海洋中，目前的数据还不足以时刻追踪生物量的变化情况。不过，作者希望本项研究将来可以作为研究气候变化会如何影响北冰洋问题的一个基础。

输

作者

Andrey Vedenin

Manuela Gusky

Andrey Gebruk

Antonina Kremenetskaia

Elena Rybakova

Antje Boetius.

翻译

凯瑟琳·奥尔森（Katherine Olson）

来源

PLOS ONE

2018年10月17日

Spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna in the Central Arctic Ocean.

In an extensive and rigorous study of animal life on the Central Arctic Ocean floor, researchers have shown that water depth and food availability influence the species composition, density, and biomass of benthic communities. The study also confirmed for the first time that species diversity on the Arctic floor display a similar depth-related pattern to that seen in more temperate waters.

Because of the long winter and permanent ice cover, life on the floor of the Central Arctic Ocean is sparser than in temperate oceans, but key characteristics of these benthic communities have not been well characterized. To address this problem, Boetius and colleagues combined data from previous ocean floor surveys with new data, including from 2012, the year of the most severe ice retreat over the Arctic Ocean in recent history.

They found that, as predicted, total biomass fell as depth increased, consistent with a food input for animal life, and the rate of decline with depth was greater than in temperate oceans. Five different community types were identified, which differed in species composition and were dependent on depth, ranging from the shallow waters of the continental shelf, to the increasing depths of the continental slope, to the abyssal plain more than four kilometers deep. As seen in temperate waters, species diversity rose and then fell as depth increased.

In this remote ocean, insufficient data are available to track diversity or biomass changes over time, but the authors hope this study will provide a baseline for answering critical questions in the future about the effects of climate change on vulnerable Arctic waters.