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Title: Unusual coastal flood impacts in Salmon Valley, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
Description: Large floods bringing significant sediments into the coastal oceans have not been observed in Antarctica. We report evidence of a large flood event depositing over 50 cm of sediment onto the nearshore benthic habitat at Salmon Bay, Antarctica, between 1990 and 2010. Besides direct observations of the sedimentation, the evidence involves a debris flow covering old tyre tracks from the early 1960s, as well as evidence of a considerable amount of sediment transported onto the Salmon Creek delta. We believe that the flood was sourced from the Salmon Glacier and possibly the smaller Blackwelder Glacier. Such floods will be more common in the future and it is important to better understand their ecological impacts with good monitoring programmes. © Antarctic Science Ltd 2016, Export Date: 13 May 2016, Article in Press
Author: Dayton, Hammerstrom, Jarrell, Kim, Nordhausen, Osborne, Thrush
Date: 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Recruitment, Growth and Mortality of an Antarctic Hexactinellid Sponge, Anoxycalyx joubini
Description: Polar ecosystems are sensitive to climate forcing, and we often lack baselines to evaluate changes. Here we report a nearly 50-year study in which a sudden shift in the population dynamics of an ecologically important, structure-forming hexactinellid sponge, Anoxycalyx joubini was observed. This is the largest Antarctic sponge, with individuals growing over two meters tall. In order to investigate life history characteristics of Antarctic marine invertebrates, artificial substrata were deployed at a number of sites in the southern portion of the Ross Sea between 1967 and 1975. Over a 22-year period, no growth or settlement was recorded for A. joubini on these substrata; however, in 2004 and 2010, A. joubini was observed to have settled and grown to large sizes on some but not all artificial substrata. This single settlement and growth event correlates with a region-wide shift in phytoplankton productivity driven by the calving of a massive iceberg. We also report almost complete mortality of large sponges followed over 40 years. Given our warming global climate, similar system-wide changes are expected in the future. © 2013 Dayton et al., Cited By (since 1996):4, Art. No.: e56939, Downloaded from: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056939 (16 June 2014).
Author: Dayton, Kim, Jarrell, Oliver, Hammerstrom, Fisher, O'Connor, Barber, Robilliard, Barry, Thurber, Conlan
Date: 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Surprising episodic recruitment and growth of Antarctic sponges: Implications for ecological resilience
Description: Sponges are the most conspicuous component of the Antarctic benthic ecosystem, a system under stress both from climate change and fishing activities. Observations over four decades are compiled and reveal extremely episodic sponge recruitment and growth. Recruitment occurred under different oceanographic conditions on both sides of McMurdo Sound. Most of the sponges appear to have recruited in the late 1990s–2000. Observations from 2000 to 2010 follow thirty years of relative stasis with very little sponge recruitment or growth followed by a general pattern of recruitment by some forty species of sponges. That there was almost no recruitment observed on natural substrata emphasizes the contrast between potential and realized recruitment. This unique data set was derived from a region noted for physical stasis, but the episodic ecological phenomena highlight the importance of rare events. Against a background of intermittent food resources and the low metabolic costs of stasis, understanding the causes of irregular larval supply, dispersal processes, recruitment success and survivorship becomes critical to predicting ecosystem dynamics and resilience in response to increasing environmental change. Our time-series emphasizes that long-term data collection is essential for meaningful forecasts about environmental change in the unique benthic ecosystems of the Antarctic shelf.
Author: Dayton, Jarrell, Kim, Thrush, Hammerstrom, Slattery, Parnell