Sciences marines : recherche et développement

Abstrait

Arctic deep-sea system functioning and vulnerability among study limitations

Aubree Jones

Most important for the deep sea, juveniles are less dependent on either limited or variable food availability. Yet indirect development, including plankto-trophic and lecitho-trophic larvae, was almost equally prevalent in the epifaunal taxa of our study area, which, in general, supports our hypothesis. This finding is consistent with a growing number of studies documenting the occurrence of pelagic larvae in both polar waters and deep-sea areas. Among larval development types, lecitho-trophs were most common in our study area. This is similar to findings in the NE Greenland, the deep-sea of the North-East Atlantic, and Antarctica, where more echinoderms were found to reproduce with pelagic larvae, the majority of which were lecitho-trophs.