Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Marine Biodiversity
Ross Sea coastal projects include Cummings et al. 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011. De Domenico et al.
2006, Grotti et al, 2008, Guidetti et al. 2006, Norkko et al. 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007; Pinkerton et al.
2006, Schwarz et al. 2003, 2005, Sharp et al. 2010, Sutherland 2008, Thrush et al. 2006, 2010 and in
press.
The New Zealand Government provided one-off funding for a Census of Antarctic Marine Life
(CAML) survey to the Ross Sea from R.V. Tangaroa as part of New Zealand’s involvement in the
2007-08 International Polar Year activities. The CAML Voyage was a large cooperative research
effort under the banner of Ocean Survey 20/20 with considerable international collaboration,
simultaneously utilising a number of different vessels with different strengths and capabilities.
Progress on the two projects IPY2007-01 and IPY2007-02, is detailed below.
Projects
ZBD2002-02 Whose larvae is that? Molecular identification of planktonic larvae of the Ross Sea.
Completed. (See Sewell et al. 2006, Sewell 2005, Sewell 2006.)
ZBD2003-03 Biodiversity of deepwater invertebrates and fish communities of the north western
Ross Sea. Completed. Two AEBR reports were produced by Rowden et al. (2012a, in press) and a
Voyage Report, Mitchell and Clark 2004. A number of papers have also been published in the
scientific literature using specimens or data from the 2004 biodiversity survey (e.g. De Domenico
et al. 2006, Schiaparelli et al. 2006, Rehm et al. 2007, Kröger & Rowden 2008, Clark et al. 2010)
ZBD2005-01 Balleny Islands Ecology Research, Tiama Voyage (2006).
This voyage collected a large amount of new data from the Balleny Islands and surrounding waters
using a range of methods, including bird and mammal observations, whale biopsy sampling, shorebased
penguin colony surveys, SCUBA dive quadrats and transects, tissue collections for stable
isotope analyses, and continuous acoustic/bathymetric data collection (Smith 2006). Some of the
specimens and data have been used for other studies.
ZBD2005-03 Opportunistic biological data during 2006 Ross Sea voyage utilising Tangaroa.
This project is complete (MacDiarmid and Stewart 2012).In brief it proved feasible to assess
demersal fish abundance using the camera and lights. Because sampling was restricted to areas
outside the main fishery, no toothfish were observed. The camera system, (a predecessor to the deep
towed imaging system (DTIS)) proved capable of characterizing the demersal fish habitat
associations. Sampling using a variety of methods yielded specimens and tissue samples of a wide
variety of benthic and pelagic organisms. The acoustic information collected on water column
organisms was less useful than desired because of interference from the bottom profiling aspects of
the voyage. Marine mammals and seabirds were routinely recorded and automated sampling of the
surface waters using a continuous plankton recorder and instruments to record sea surface
temperature, salinity and chlorophyll-a concentration was successful.
ZBD2008-23 Macroalgae diversty and benthic community structure at the Balleny Islands.
Project complete. As a result of this study, the known macroalgal flora of the Balleny Islands has
increased from 13 to 27 species, and there are 2 new records for the Ross Sea in addition to the 3
new records reported by Page et al. (2001). The biodiversity however remains poorly known, and
detailed comparisons with other parts of the Antarctic region would be premature. A high
proportion of the taxa reported here are known from only one collection, with a further group of
taxa known from either two or three collections. Many of the taxa cannot be fully documented as
there is insufficient mature material available.
The samples collected as part of a benthic survey at Borradaile Island, one of the Balleny Islands
group, during the 2006 Tiama expedition have been analysed to provide an assessment of benthic
community structure. The Borradaile Island sites were located in a high energy environment,
sediments had relatively high organic and chlorophyll a content, and considerably lower
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