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. 2016 May 16:6:26095.
doi: 10.1038/srep26095.

High resolution study of the spatial distributions of abyssal fishes by autonomous underwater vehicle

R J Milligan  1   2 , K J Morris  3 , B J Bett  3 , J M Durden  3   4 , D O B Jones  3 , K Robert  3   4 , H A Ruhl  3 , D M Bailey  2
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High resolution study of the spatial distributions of abyssal fishes by autonomous underwater vehicle

R J Milligan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

On abyssal plains, demersal fish are believed to play an important role in transferring energy across the seafloor and between the pelagic and benthic realms. However, little is known about their spatial distributions, making it difficult to quantify their ecological significance. To address this, we employed an autonomous underwater vehicle to conduct an exceptionally large photographic survey of fish distributions on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic, 4850 m water depth) encompassing two spatial scales (1-10 km(2)) on and adjacent to a small abyssal hill (240 m elevation). The spatial distributions of the total fish fauna and that of the two dominant morphotypes (Coryphaenoides sp. 1 and C. profundicolus) appeared to be random, a result contrary to common expectation but consistent with previous predictions for these fishes. We estimated total fish density on the abyssal plain to be 723 individuals km(-2) (95% CI: 601-844). This estimate is higher, and likely more precise, than prior estimates from trawl catch and baited camera techniques (152 and 188 individuals km(-2) respectively). We detected no significant difference in fish density between abyssal hill and plain, nor did we detect any evidence for the existence of fish aggregations at any spatial scale assessed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Locations of all fish (black circles) observed by: (a) the oblique camera and (b) the vertical camera during each AUV survey. Depth contours are marked at 40 m intervals. Projection: UTM Zone 28. Created with ArcGIS v. 10.1 (http://www.arcgis.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Example cumulative frequency plots showing the distances of every oblique image to the 4,800 m hill contour according to whether they contained fish (dashed line) or not (solid line).
(a) Total fish fauna; (b) Coryphaenoides profundicolus; (c) Coryphaenoides sp. 1. No significant differences were found between the distributions of images containing fish and those that did not (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test: p > 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3. 1D Neighbour K plots showing the distribution patterns of all fish (a,b); Coryphaenoides sp. 1. (c,d); and Corphaenoides profundicolus (e,f) at different spatial scales.
t (m) is the size of the spatial “window” used to estimate L(t) around any given fish in the distribution. The normalised observed values (solid line) are shown against 95% C.I.s (grey region).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Locations of the Autosub6000 and SHRIMP surveys at the hill site and PAP benthic time series site (F3).
Depth contours are marked at 40 m intervals (Projection: UTM Zone 28). Created with ArcGIS v. 10.1 (http://www.arcgis.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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