Changes to benthic community structure may impact organic matter consumption on Pacific Arctic shelves.

Changes in species composition and biomass of Arctic benthic communities are predicted to occur in response to environmental changes associated with oceanic warming and sea-ice loss. Such changes will likely impact ecosystem function, including flows of energy and organic material through the Arctic marine food web. Oxygen consumption rates can be used to quantify differences in metabolic demand among species and estimate the effects of shifting community structure on benthic carbon consumption. Closed-system respirometry using non-invasive oxygen optodes was conducted onboard the in June 2017 and 2018 on six dominant species of benthic macrofauna from the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Sea shelves, including five bivalve species ( sp, , sp, and ) and one amphipod species (). Results revealed species-specific respiration rates with high metabolic demand for and compared to that of the other species. For a hypothetical 0.1-g ash-free dry mass individual, the standard metabolic rate of would be 4.3 times higher than that of sp. Overall, carbon demand ranged from 8 to 475 μg C individual day for the species and sizes of individuals measured. The allometric scaling of respiration rate with biomass also varied among species. The scaling coefficient was similar for , and sp., while it was high for and low for sp. These results suggest that observed shifts in spatial distribution of the dominant macrofaunal taxa across this region will impact carbon demand of the benthic community. Hence, ecosystem models seeking to incorporate benthic system functionality may need to differentiate between communities that exhibit different oxygen demands.