Does a pulsed food supply to the benthos affect polychaete recruitment patterns in the Northeast Water Polynya?

Recently, researchers have discovered that deep-sea species from many phyla exhibit distinct seasonality in reproductive effort. Many of these studies describe the seasonality as correlating with pulsed sedimentation of phytodetritus to the benthos. The Northeast Water Polynya provides an ideal system in which to test whether a compressed season of pelagic productivity corresponds to recruitment patterns in benthic organisms. We took sediment cores at a station nine times between 30 May and 11 August 1993 and assessed seasonal patterns in recruitment and benthic pigment concentration. Two distinct, but compositionally different, peaks in benthic pigment concentration were observed during this period. While total polychaete recruitment showed a broad mid-summer peak in intensity, at the taxonomic level of family and below, peaks were sharper and suggested seasonal recruitment events. No support, however, was identified for synchrony of reproduction with pulses of sedimenting food from the water column, indicating that food limitation does not explain reproductive patterns in this region. Trophic dynamics, including differential feeding, predation, and survival patterns among recruits, may provide a mechanism for the observed lag time between pulses of food and recruitment, but additional study is required to resolve the determining factors.