Colleagues,
Along with my co-authors Kelly Benoit-Bird and Mark Moline, I would
like to bring to your attention a paper recently published in
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B (Biological Sciences)
entitled Predator-guided sampling reveals biotic structure in
the bathypelagic. The full reference, online location, and
full abstract are provided below. We are happy to provide .pdf
copies of the article on request by email
(Brandon.Southall@sea-inc.net or kbenoit@coas.oregonstate.edu) as a
professional courtesy.
Thanks,
Brandon Southall
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Benoit-Bird KJ, Southall BL, Moline MA. 2016. Predator-guided
sampling reveals biotic structure in the bathypelagic. Proc. R. Soc.
B 283: 20152457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2457
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1825/20152457.abstract
We targeted a habitat used differentially by deep-diving,
air-breathing predators to empirically sample their prey's
distributions off southern California. Fine-scale measurements of
the spatial variability of potential prey animals from the surface
to 1200 m were obtained using conventional fisheries echosounders
aboard a surface ship and uniquely integrated into a deep-diving
autonomous vehicle. Significant spatial variability in the size,
composition, total biomass, and spatial organization of biota was
evident over all spatial scales examined and was consistent with the
general distribution patterns of foraging Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius
cavirostris) observed in separate studies. Striking
differences found in prey characteristics between regions at depth,
however, did not reflect differences observed in surface layers.
These differences in deep pelagic structure horizontally and
relative to surface structure, absent clear physical differences,
change our long-held views of this habitat as uniform. The
revelation that animals deep in the water column are so spatially
heterogeneous at scales from 10 m to 50 km critically affects our
understanding of the processes driving predator–prey interactions,
energy transfer, biogeochemical cycling, and other ecological
processes in the deep sea, and the connections between the
productive surface mixed layer and the deep-water column.
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Brandon L. Southall, Ph.D.
President, Senior Scientist, SEA, Inc.
Research Associate, University of California, Santa Cruz
9099 Soquel Drive, Suite 8, Aptos, CA 95003, USA
831.332.8744 (mobile); 831.661.5177 (office); 831.661.5178 (fax)
Brandon.Southall@sea-inc.net; www.sea-inc.net