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Structure and distribution of fish assemblages at Burdwood Bank, the first Sub-Antarctic Marine Protected Area “Namuncurá” in Argentina (Southwestern Atlantic Ocean)

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Abstract

The first non-coastal Sub-Antarctic Marine Protected Area (Namuncurá) in Argentina was created in 2013, at Burdwood Bank (MPAN-BB), an undersea plateau located about 200 km south from Malvinas/Falkland Islands, SW Atlantic Ocean. The main contribution of this work was to explore fish species composition and the structure of fish assemblages in three different zones of the MPAN-BB with different conservation strategies and different surrounding areas. Twenty-two fishing trawls were performed using a demersal bottom trawl pilot net at depths between 71 and 608 m. A total of 667 fish belonging to 30 species were collected in the surveyed area. The richest family in terms of species number was Nototheniidae (seven species), followed by Macrouridae, Myxinidae and Zoarcidae (four species each), then Moridae and Arhynchobatidae (three species each), and finally Muraenolepididae and Psychrolutidae (two species each). The remaining families were represented by a single species. Three significantly different fish assemblages were detected. These distinct assemblages were largely circumscribed at the plateau, the shelf-break slope, and the area west of the BB. The results showed that fish diversity in the MPAN-BB is relatively high constituting ~ 10% of the fish composition reported for the Atlantic sector of the Magellanic Province. The present data suggest that fishes are an important component of the benthic community planned to be protected by the implementation of the MPAN-BB. These findings have important implications for habitat preservation and threatened species conservation.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the captain and crew of the OV ‘‘Puerto Deseado’’, and all the scientific staff for helping during sampling, as well as to Drs. Daniel Roccatagliata and Laura Schejter for their commitment to coordinating the work on board. Gustavo Lovrich, as scientific and academic coordinator, supported and encouraged all research projects dealing with the Namuncurá MPA, Burdwood Bank and the surrounding areas. We are especially indebted to D. Piepenburg, M. B Cousseau and an anonymous reviewer for their suggestions and corrections, which we believe greatly improved this manuscript. JMDA greatly appreciates the assistance of Thomas Munroe (National Systematics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) for reading and correcting the English text.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET-Argentina), PIP 0440 to DF Project-FONDO IBOL to SMD, EM, JMDA. D. M. Vazquez was supported by a CONICET fellowship. Operating costs were afforded by funds of the creation law of MPA Namuncurá—Banco Burdwood (Law 26.875). This is the scientific contribution 42 of the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Biotaxonomía Morfológica y Molecular de Peces (BIMOPE), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMdP), Dean Funes 3350, B7602AYL, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    S. M. Delpiani, D. M. Vazquez, G. E. Delpiani, J. J. Rosso, E. Mabragaña & J. M. Díaz de Astarloa

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC-UNMdP-CONICET), Dean Funes 3350, B7602AYL, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    S. M. Delpiani, D. M. Vazquez, G. E. Delpiani, J. J. Rosso, E. Mabragaña & J. M. Díaz de Astarloa

  3. Laboratorio de Ecología, Fisiología y Evolución de Organismos Acuáticos (LEFyE), Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Bernardo Houssay 200, V9410CAB, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    D. O. Bruno, F. Llompart & D. A. Fernández

  4. Instituto de Ciencias Polares, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego (ICPA-UNTDF), Fuegia Basket 251, V9410CAB, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    D. O. Bruno, F. Llompart & D. A. Fernández

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  1. S. M. Delpiani
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  2. D. O. Bruno
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  4. F. Llompart
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  8. E. Mabragaña
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Correspondence to S. M. Delpiani.

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All permissions for collecting samples from the’Marine Protected Area Namuncurá (MPAN-BB) were issued by its Administrative Council by authorizing and funding the scientific missions. All sampling procedures and experimental manipulations follow the guidelines approved by the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Bioterio Central,https://exactas.uba.ar/cicual/).

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Delpiani, S.M., Bruno, D.O., Vazquez, D.M. et al. Structure and distribution of fish assemblages at Burdwood Bank, the first Sub-Antarctic Marine Protected Area “Namuncurá” in Argentina (Southwestern Atlantic Ocean). Polar Biol 43, 1783–1793 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02744-w

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