Billefjorden’s benthic biodiversity: the impact of glacier retreat on faunal communities in a high Arctic fjord

Billefjorden’s benthic biodiversity: the impact of glacier retreat on faunal communities in a high Arctic fjord | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Billefjorden’s benthic biodiversity: the impact of glacier retreat on faunal communities in a high Arctic fjord Arjen A.W. van der Kamp, Víctor González Triginer, Arunima Sen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5656696/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 May, 2025 Read the published version in Polar Biology → Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Glaciers cover approximately 60% of the Svalbard archipelago, but despite extensive research on Svalbard’s glaciers and their retreat, little is known about the effect of glaciers with different termination points on fjordic benthic communities in the Arctic. Billefjorden, Svalbard, includes bays influenced by runoff from inland glaciers and Nordenskiöldbreen, a glacier that, due to retreat, has split into a marine- and a shore-terminating side since 2017. We investigated the benthic faunal community composition in relation to environmental factors (bottom water temperature and salinity, TOC, percent pelite and sediment pigments) within Billefjorden to examine the effects of inland glaciers, a shore-terminating glacier, and a marine-terminating glacier on benthic communities. Despite their close proximity, the different locations displayed distinct community parameters and environmental conditions. Specifically, the strongly glacier-influenced locations were less diverse and had lower faunal abundance compared to the location with minimal glacier influence, likely due to higher sedimentation rates and lower food availability. The marine-terminating glacier side had a particularly sparse community, likely due to high turbidity and food deprivation. Our results suggest that glaciers and their retreat impact local-scale environmental factors which drive differentiation of benthic communities over small spatial scales within a single fjord system. Benthos Climate change Fjordic system Marine-terminating glacier Sedimentation Svalbard. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files ESM1.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 May, 2025 Read the published version in Polar Biology → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 24 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 24 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 16 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 14 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Apr, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 10 Apr, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 09 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 09 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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