摘要
Long-term data from Port Valdez and short-term data from the northeastern Chukchi Sea were reviewed to gain insights into temporal drivers of macrobenthic biodiversity in Alaskan marine systems. Climate indices associated with oceanographic processes, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in the North Pacific, and the Arctic Oscillation in the Arctic, were strongly correlated with macrobenthic density and taxon richness, indicating inadequacies of inferences concerning biodiversity from short-term studies as shifts in benthic assemblages are possible when influenced by climate-driven changes in water circulation. Species accumulation curves demonstrate that less than 50 % of biodiversity information may be captured in an area within two years, independent of sampling scale, with 90 % captured in 17 years. Additionally, assumptions of water temperature as a limiting factor for benthic organisms may not hold in Alaska as many organisms are widely dispersed across temperature regimes and, instead, some species may be limited by regional-scale biological interactions. Thus, species-specific investigations of life history and environmental tolerances together with long-term data sets are needed to predict future climate-driven responses to better conserve and manage resources. The two study areas share 33 % of species in common as a result of oceanographic linkages indicating that past geological history is as important as current oceanographic conditions for our understanding of the present. Better availability and retrospective analyses of historic data will contribute to a greater understanding of macroscale ecological patterns. The study also demonstrates the importance of considering broader studies in management decisions, like the long-term Port Valdez study, that can inform decision processes for research in Arctic seas. Keywords Biodiversity Marine ecology Fjords Species richness Climate variations Temporal ecology