Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103658
Sang Lyeol Kim , Hyung-Gon Lee , Kyung-Hee Oh , Kongtae Ra , Ok Hwan Yu
The Kuroshio Current, a major western boundary current in the North Pacific, intrudes into the southern seas of Korea through the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) and exerts strong influence on benthic ecosystems. From 2015 to 2024, we assessed seasonal variability in hydrography, sediments, and benthic macrofauna. Summer conditions featured warmer surface waters (27.8 °C), lower dissolved oxygen, and more organic-rich, coarse sediments. Benthic communities showed clear seasonality, with all community metrics highest in spring, lowest in winter, and intermediate in summer and autumn. Sediments were mainly sandy silt and silty sand, dominated by polychaetes, with higher species density and biomass observed in summer and autumn. Bottom temperature was modestly related to richness and density, while biomass declined with surface warming. These patterns closely resemble observations from other Kuroshio-affected regions, including seasonal oxygen depletion and organic enrichment on the East China Sea shelf, enhanced nutrient flux and benthic shifts off Taiwan, and polychaete-dominated assemblages in southern Japan. The convergence of these features across Kuroshio-influenced margins provides evidence that the benthic ecosystems of Korea are directly shaped by the hydrographic and biogeochemical forcing of the Kuroshio system.
{"title":"Influence of the Kuroshio Current on the benthic communities in the southern seas of Korea","authors":"Sang Lyeol Kim , Hyung-Gon Lee , Kyung-Hee Oh , Kongtae Ra , Ok Hwan Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103658","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Kuroshio Current, a major western boundary current in the North Pacific, intrudes into the southern seas of Korea through the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) and exerts strong influence on benthic ecosystems. From 2015 to 2024, we assessed seasonal variability in hydrography, sediments, and benthic macrofauna. Summer conditions featured warmer surface waters (27.8 °C), lower dissolved oxygen, and more organic-rich, coarse sediments. Benthic communities showed clear seasonality, with all community metrics highest in spring, lowest in winter, and intermediate in summer and autumn. Sediments were mainly sandy silt and silty sand, dominated by polychaetes, with higher species density and biomass observed in summer and autumn. Bottom temperature was modestly related to richness and density, while biomass declined with surface warming. These patterns closely resemble observations from other Kuroshio-affected regions, including seasonal oxygen depletion and organic enrichment on the East China Sea shelf, enhanced nutrient flux and benthic shifts off Taiwan, and polychaete-dominated assemblages in southern Japan. The convergence of these features across Kuroshio-influenced margins provides evidence that the benthic ecosystems of Korea are directly shaped by the hydrographic and biogeochemical forcing of the Kuroshio system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20620,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Oceanography","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 103658"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145786142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103656
Kharis R. Schrage , Johanna N.J. Weston , Alexandra Kraberg , Rebecca McPherson , Wilken-Jon Von Appen , Loreley Lago , Kirstin S. Meyer-Kaiser
Rapid Arctic warming is altering marine ecosystems, yet the diversity and dispersal of meroplankton—larval stages of benthic invertebrates—remain poorly understood in the region. This study presents the first detailed characterization of meroplanktonic communities in the Fram Strait, based on summer collections made in 2023 and 2024 across the Long-Term Ecological Research observatory HAUSGARTEN. Using integrated and depth-stratified vertical net tows and DNA barcoding, we identified 77 taxa, 33 of which were identified to the species level. Meroplankton were most dense in the upper 200 m, dominated by bivalves and ophiuroids, with significant patchiness across depths and regions. Community composition was related to water mass and phytoplankton community composition (explaining 25 % of the variability among stations), but not to sea ice cover, reflecting a complex coupling between benthic reproduction and pelagic conditions. Lagrangian particle tracking revealed that larvae in the West Spitsbergen Current may originate from as far south as northern Norway, while East Greenland Current larvae likely derive from central Arctic waters. Species-level investigations of meroplankton distribution are critical for assessing existing biodiversity and detecting changes to species composition. Here, most larvae belonged to local or Arcto-Boreal species, though seven taxa had no adult records in the Fram Strait, which may indicate larvae being wasted (not surviving to settlement), broad connectivity among coastal Arctic populations, and/or range expansions. These findings highlight the interplay between hydrography and hydrodynamics, larval ecology, and climate-driven change, and establish a baseline for monitoring Arctic benthic connectivity and biodiversity under ongoing ocean warming.
{"title":"Diversity, drivers, and dispersal of high Arctic meroplanktonic communities","authors":"Kharis R. Schrage , Johanna N.J. Weston , Alexandra Kraberg , Rebecca McPherson , Wilken-Jon Von Appen , Loreley Lago , Kirstin S. Meyer-Kaiser","doi":"10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid Arctic warming is altering marine ecosystems, yet the diversity and dispersal of meroplankton—larval stages of benthic invertebrates—remain poorly understood in the region. This study presents the first detailed characterization of meroplanktonic communities in the Fram Strait, based on summer collections made in 2023 and 2024 across the Long-Term Ecological Research observatory HAUSGARTEN. Using integrated and depth-stratified vertical net tows and DNA barcoding, we identified 77 taxa, 33 of which were identified to the species level. Meroplankton were most dense in the upper 200 m, dominated by bivalves and ophiuroids, with significant patchiness across depths and regions. Community composition was related to water mass and phytoplankton community composition (explaining 25 % of the variability among stations), but not to sea ice cover, reflecting a complex coupling between benthic reproduction and pelagic conditions. Lagrangian particle tracking revealed that larvae in the West Spitsbergen Current may originate from as far south as northern Norway, while East Greenland Current larvae likely derive from central Arctic waters. Species-level investigations of meroplankton distribution are critical for assessing existing biodiversity and detecting changes to species composition. Here, most larvae belonged to local or Arcto-Boreal species, though seven taxa had no adult records in the Fram Strait, which may indicate larvae being wasted (not surviving to settlement), broad connectivity among coastal Arctic populations, and/or range expansions. These findings highlight the interplay between hydrography and hydrodynamics, larval ecology, and climate-driven change, and establish a baseline for monitoring Arctic benthic connectivity and biodiversity under ongoing ocean warming.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20620,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Oceanography","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 103656"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145844680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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