Regional Variation in Communities of Demersal Fishes and Scavengers Across the CCZ and Pacific Ocean

Abstract

We synthesize and analyze data from visual transecting approaches and baited camera studies to evaluate fish and invertebrate scavenger communities across the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an area of intense deep-sea mining interest, and neighboring areas of the abyssal Pacific. In abyssal regions including the CCZ most of the top predators are large mobile fishes and crustaceans, and the majority of these are also opportunistic scavengers. Top predators can exert important ecosystem influences and they can be susceptible to sustained anthropogenic disturbances, necessitating their study in the CCZ mining region. In total 157 baited camera deployments from 3 mining exploration license areas, 4 APEIs (Areas of Particular Environmental Interest – one type of no mining zone) and 4 other areas in the Pacific (Hawaii, California, New Zealand and Guam) and 122 visual transects from 7 exploration license areas, 4 no mining zones, and the Peru Basin (DISCOL area) were examined. Many taxa were observed in both sampling techniques but visual transects viewed few fishes overall. Fish and scavenger communities and diversity varied across the CCZ, significantly for baited camera data with a parallel but insignificant pattern for visual transects suggesting that even for these highly mobile species, not all regions of the CCZ are equivalent and the CCZ cannot be managed as one homogenous region. Further CCZ communities were different than communities elsewhere in the abyssal Pacific. The regional variations in community composition are largely the result of varying abundances of species rather than species presence/absence given that most, but not all, of the fishes and scavengers observed have very large ranges. On a more local scale, seamounts had a significantly different scavenger community than neighboring abyssal plains and thus contribute to regional diversity. Visual transect data revealed a similar but insignificant pattern due to low sample sizes. Given the coarse spatial resolution of sampling of fish and scavenger communities in the CCZ, it is not possible to evaluate if no mining zones (APEIs) adequately represent these communities nor where, or if, any biogeographic boundaries exist in the CCZ region. It is possible to conclude that a network of APEIs that covers the spectrum of available habitats at regional and more local scales will be key to conserving fish and scavenger biodiversity.