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The Davis Strait - DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi

The Davis Strait - DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi

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regime being the most prominent (e.g. Gray 2002, Wlodarska-Kowalczuk et<br />

al. 2004, Piepenburg 2005). <strong>The</strong>re<strong>for</strong>e the benthic community is often extremely<br />

heter<strong>og</strong>eneous on both local and regional scales.<br />

<strong>The</strong> coastline in Southwest Greenland (62-67°N) is traversed by numerous<br />

fjords, many of them acting as direct links between the inland ice sheet and<br />

the ocean. Moreover, many islands are scattered directly off the coast resulting<br />

in an extremely long coastline and a variety of shallow benthic habitats.<br />

<strong>The</strong> continental shelf most often extends >100 km offshore. A mix of shallow<br />

banks (300 m) results in a highly complex bathymetry<br />

in the shelf area.<br />

4.4.1 Fauna<br />

Considering the extremely long coastline of Greenland the number of benthic<br />

surveys is limited. Still, there have been reports of high standing stocks<br />

of macrofauna (>1000 g wet weight m -2 ) in shallow benthic habitats in<br />

Greenland (

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