Biomass size-spectra of macrobenthic communities in the oxygen minimum zone off Chile |
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| Institution: | 1. Programa de Doctorado en Oceanografía, Universidad de Concepción, Departamento de Oceanografía, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile;2. Centro de Investigación Oceanográfica en el Pacífico Sur-Oriental (COPAS), Departamento de Oceanografía, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile;3. Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas. Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile;4. Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Columbusstrasse D-27568, Bremerhaven, Germany;5. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University, Galveston, TX 77553, USA |
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| Abstract: | Estimates of macrofaunal secondary production and normalized biomass size-spectra (NBSS) were constructed for macrobenthic communities associated with the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in four areas of the continental margin off Chile. The presence of low oxygen conditions in the Humboldt Current System (HCS) off Chile was shown to have important effects on the size structure and secondary production of the benthic communities living in this ecosystem. The distribution of normalized biomass by size was linear (log2–log2 scale) at all stations. The slope of the NBSS ranged from ?0.481 to ?0.908. There were significant differences between the slopes of the NBS-spectra from the stations located in the OMZ (slope = ?0.837) and those located outside the OMZ (slope = ?0.463) (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that low oxygen conditions (<0.5 ml L?1) appear to influence biomass size-spectra, because small organisms are better able to satisfy their metabolic demands. The annual secondary production was higher off central Chile (6.8 g C m?2 y?1) than off northern Chile (2.02 g C m?2 y?1) and off southern Chile (0.83 g C m?2 y?1). A comparison with other studies suggests that secondary production in terms of carbon equivalents was higher than in other upwelling regions. |
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