The temporal and spatial resilience of abundance
patterns of assemblages of organisms inhabiting transition
zones between Arctic and boreal regions is an issue of
concern in relation to climate change. The recognition that
baseline information spanning such transition zones is
required to facilitate future monitoring and assessments of
temporal dynamics provided the motivation for the present
study. One such transition area is the Svalbard archipelago
of the Northeast Atlantic, located between the Arctic and
the boreal Atlantic, where significant climate changes
occur. The study aimed to utilize an existing data series
from Svalbard to analyse and describe demersal fish
assemblage structure and distributions. Norwegian bottom
trawl surveys sampled the area annually in August–
September 2007–2014, and the dataset is the first from this
area which is sufficiently comprehensive to carry out
assemblage analyses. The survey years analysed represent
the recent unprecedented warm period in the Barents Sea–
Svalbard region which started around 2004. The new
baseline information improves the basis for future studies
of resilience under changing environmental conditions. A
key finding was that the major transition in species composition
is that between deep Greenland Sea and Arctic
Ocean assemblages (upper slope assemblages) and the
shelf assemblages. In shallower shelf areas (\\500 m depth)
structuring is weaker with assemblages having many species
in common. The expected association of fish assemblages
with regional bathymetric and hydrographic features
was confirmed. The observed patterns probably reflect a
comparatively extensive Atlantic influence during the
warm period.
Baseline _ Fishes _ Distributions _ Arctic _
Atlantic _ Svalbard
