Staggering species diversity of Harpacticoida (Crustacea, Copepoda) in the deep sea of the Angola Basin (southeast Atlantic)


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lena.menzel [ at ] awi.de

Abstract

DIVA 1 was the first of three cruises realized so far within the CeDAMar deep-sea project DIVA (Latitudinal Gradients of Deep-Sea BioDIVersity in the Atlantic). It took place in July/August 2000, sampling several locations in the Angola deepsea basin off Namibia. Investigations on the alpha-diversity of the harpacticoid fauna (Crustacea, Copepoda) of two repeatedly sampled stations using the Multicorer (MUC) (southern station #325 and northern station #346) revealed for the first time a significant diversity difference between two abyssal sites (Rose et al., 2005). While studies on alpha-diversity do not necessarily require explicit over-all taxonomic species determination, detailed community analyses of benthic associations certainly do. Recently, the Harpacticoida sampled at the above mentioned stations have been determined completely. In total, 16,350 specimens were collected. For further multivariate analyses, 75 MUC cores were randomly selected. They yielded 7,082 Harpacticoida, 4,860 (68.6%) of which being copepodids and 2,222 (31.4%) being adults. More than ¾ of the adult specimens are females. Due to damages, 67 individuals had to be excluded. Thus, a number of 2,155 adult Harpacticoida were analysed at species level. They distribute over 683 species, being only five (0.73%) known from other localities. More than half of the species (385, i.e. 56.4%) are represented by singletons, whereas few species like e.g. Argestes angolaensis George, 2009 (Argestidae) show remarkably high individual numbers. The results of a detailed community analysis are presented. They confirm a significant difference between the two Angola-basin stations.



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Conference (Talk)
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Published
Event Details
14th International Meiofauna Conference, 11 Jul 2010 - 16 Jul 2010, Gent, Belgium.
Eprint ID
31035
Cite as
George, K. H. , Seifried, S. , Rose, A. , Bröhldick, K. , Corgosinho, P. , Drewes, J. , Martínez Arbizu, P. , Menzel, L. , Moura, G. , Veit-Köhler, G. , Willen, E. and Schminke, H. (2010): Staggering species diversity of Harpacticoida (Crustacea, Copepoda) in the deep sea of the Angola Basin (southeast Atlantic) , 14th International Meiofauna Conference, Gent, Belgium, 11 July 2010 - 16 July 2010 .


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