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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Ecosystem Ecology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1494734

Extremely low biodiversity Arctic intertidal habitats as sentinels for environmental change

Provisionally accepted
Huw James Griffiths Huw James Griffiths 1*Catherine Waller Catherine Waller 2Stephen John Roberts Stephen John Roberts 1Anna Jażdżewska Anna Jażdżewska 3David S. Hik David S. Hik 4
  • 1 British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 2 University of Hull, Hull, Yorkshire and the Humber, United Kingdom
  • 3 University of Łódź, Łódź, Łódź, Poland
  • 4 Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR), Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes, including an unprecedented decline in sea ice. Previous studies have shown the severe structuring impact of sea ice scour upon polar intertidal communities. A dramatic example of the influence of Arctic sea ice is the highly depauperate intertidal of Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq) on Victoria Island, Nunavut. Cambridge Bay intertidal is dominated by a single species of amphipod crustacean, Gammarus setosus, with rare examples of another amphipod, bivalve molluscs, and oligochaetes. Primary producers are limited to a thin algal film, with no macroalgae present shallower than 2 m water depth. This intertidal biodiversity has remained extremely low since it was first surveyed 70 years ago, however, the seasonal sea ice thickness has been in decline for over 50 years. Given the observed dramatic increases in biodiversity and biomass with decreased sea ice cover elsewhere in the Arctic and the presence of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, we suggest that the intertidal of Cambridge Bay offers an ideal location for a low cost, low effort and long-term monitoring of biodiversity change and tipping points that may be influenced by sea ice loss in the Arctic as part of a network intertidal monitoring stations.

    Keywords: intertidal, Arctic, low biodiversity, Amphipod, Climate Change, sea ice

    Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Griffiths, Waller, Roberts, Jażdżewska and Hik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Huw James Griffiths, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge, United Kingdom

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