Abstract Benthic biological hotspots with persistently high macrofaunal biomass exist on the highly advective continental shelf that extends from the northern Bering Sea to the northeast Chukchi Sea. Environmental factors that influence carbon export to the benthos, a key driver for hotspot formation and persistence, remain uncertain. Multiple modeling approaches were used to better understand the combined effects of biological production and physical transport processes on supplying biogenic materials to those biological hotspots. Large data sets of benthic and environmental observations were synthesized, outputs from a pan-arctic ice-ocean-biogeochemical model were analyzed, and particle tracking modeling experiments and statistical analyses were conducted. Two different biophysical mechanisms of biogenic material supply to five benthic hotspot subdomains over a latitudinal range were identified using models and verified using data synthesis. Two hotpots to the south and the north of Bering Strait and the third one in southern Barrow Canyon heavily rely on carbon supplied from upstream biological production. In contrast, the St. Lawrence Island Polynya, southwest of St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea, and the Northeast Chukchi Sea hotspots are mostly fueled by local production. Spatial statistical modeling of benthic biomass distribution generally recaptured known hotspots but also suggested the likelihood of other probable hotspots in subregions of biologically productive Gulf of Anadyr and of the topographically controlled Herald Canyon where limited sampling has occurred. The study provides new mechanistic understandings of the oceanographic processes and biophysical interactions that produce organic matter in sea ice and in the water column that subsequently is exported to underlying benthic communities. Combining data synthesis with process-based modeling was critical in understanding the dynamics of these sympagic-pelagic-benthic ecosystems and the potential climate-change-induced ecosystem response in the Pacific Arctic region.

中文翻译：

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北白令和楚科奇大陆架上的海底热点：生产体制和环境驱动因素的空间变异

摘要 在从白令海北部延伸到楚科奇海东北部的强平流大陆架上，存在具有持续高大型动物生物量的底栖生物热点。影响底栖动物碳排放的环境因素（热点形成和持续存在的关键驱动因素）仍然不确定。使用多种建模方法来更好地了解生物生产和物理运输过程对向这些生物热点供应生物材料的综合影响。合成了海底和环境观测的大型数据集，分析了泛北极冰-海洋-生物地球化学模型的输出，并进行了粒子跟踪建模实验和统计分析。使用模型确定了向纬度范围内五个底栖热点子域供应生物材料的两种不同生物物理机制，并使用数据合成进行了验证。白令海峡南部和北部的两个火锅以及巴罗峡谷南部的第三个火锅严重依赖上游生物生产供应的碳。相比之下，白令海北部圣劳伦斯岛西南部的圣劳伦斯岛波利尼亚和楚科奇海东北部热点地区则大多以当地生产为燃料。底栖生物量分布的空间统计模型通常重新获得了已知的热点，但也表明了在生物生产力阿纳德尔湾和地形控制的先驱峡谷的子区域中其他可能热点的可能性，其中发生了有限的采样。该研究提供了对海洋过程和生物物理相互作用的新机制理解，这些过程和生物物理相互作用在海冰和水柱中产生有机物质，随后输出到底层底栖群落。将数据合成与基于过程的建模相结合，对于了解这些共游-远洋-底栖生态系统的动态以及太平洋北极地区潜在的气候变化引起的生态系统响应至关重要。