Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Antarctic Aquatic Ecosystems (Coastal)

Principle Investigator: Vonda Cummings
Organisation: NIWA

What we do: We use natural gradients in environmental conditions (e.g., sea ice, light regime) and productivity within the latitudinal range of the Ross Sea to address how the structure, diversity, trophic interactions and productivity of communities relate to site-specific physical variables.  We will determine the source and magnitude of primary production, patterns of resource utilisation by macrobenthos and the biodiversity of benthic communities over different spatial scales. 

Why we do it: Antarctica’s coastal marine environments support diverse benthic communities, structured by a hierarchy of physical and biotic factors.Characterising the structure and function of benthic communities and their link to site-specific productivity is essential to an improved understanding of Antarctic ecology, and creates a baseline for distinguishing natural environmental variability, occurring over short ecological time and space scales, from larger scale phenomena such as global warming.

This research contributes to the Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP).

Recent Publications
Cummings, V. 2005. Marine ecosystems: life beneath the ice.  Water and Atmosphere 13(3): 24-25. View Article.

Norkko, J. et al. 2005. Detecting growth under environmental extremes: Spatial and temporal patterns in nucleic acid rations in two Antarctic bivalves. Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology 326: 144-156.

Schwarz, A.-M. et al. Primary production potential of non-geniculate coralline algae at Cape Evans, Ross Sea, Antarctica. Marine ecology progress series 294: 131-140. 2005. View Abstract.

Norkko, A. et. al. Ecological role of Phyllophra antarctica drift accumulations in coastal soft-sediment communities of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Polar Biology 27: 482-494. 2005.