Community structure and diversity of polychaetes (Annelida) in the deep Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean) and adjacent basins
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Community structure and diversity of polychaetes (Annelida) in the deep Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean) and adjacent basins Myriam Schüller & Brigitte Ebbe & J.-Wolfgang Wägele
Received: 17 November 2008 / Revised: 23 January 2009 / Accepted: 24 January 2009 / Published online: 6 March 2009 # Senckenberg, Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer 2009
Abstract During the austral summer of 2005, the Weddell deep sea and adjacent basins were sampled in the course of the ANDEEP III project. In this study, 19 epibenthic-sledge stations are analyzed, with a focus on species diversity and distribution patterns of polychaetes. The polychaete fauna of the deep Southern Ocean has been found to be similarly speciose and diverse compared with deep-sea basins worldwide. Also, in depths below 2,000 m many polychaete species do not seem to be endemic for certain areas but are rather far spread within the Southern Ocean and beyond. Therefore, ongoing faunal exchanges between adjacent basins, even beyond the Antarctic convergence, are strongly suggested, ruling out a general isolation of the Southern Ocean deep-sea benthos. Driving forces behind species distribution patterns were investigated. The findings indicate that polychaete species’ distribution in the Southern Ocean deep sea is rather dependent on local environment than depths.
M. Schüller (*) Animal Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany e-mail: [email protected] B. Ebbe Senckenberg Institut, CeDAMar, c/o ZFMK Bonn, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany e-mail: [email protected] J.-W. Wägele ZFMK Bonn, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Polychaeta . Southern ocean . Deep sea . Diversity . ANDEEP
Introduction Polychaeta are one of the most abundant and most diverse invertebrate groups in the marine realm. Their diversity of ecological niches is immense and can be compared with that of the Insecta in the terrestrial world. While a high polychaete abundance on and in shelf substrates is a common phenomenon, deep-sea investigations of the last 40 years confirmed a similar abundance of polychaetes in bathyal to abyssal depths. Studies from different ocean basins have shown that polychaetes regularly contribute 30–60% of all individuals in deep-sea samples (Alongi 1992; Brandt and Schnack 1999; Borowski and Thiel 1998; Hessler and Jumars 1974; Hessler and Sanders 1967; Kröncke and Türkay 2003; Thistle et al. 1985). However, the deep-sea sites studied hitherto were almost exclusively located on the northern hemisphere. Studies from southern hemisphere waters are rare. Least is known from the Southern Ocean, although it has been extensively sampled during the last century. Sampling was concentrated mainly on shelf regions, leaving the large deep-sea basins around Antarctica an almost unknown territory. So far, over 700 polychaete species have been found in the Southern Ocean. Less than 300 have been recorded from depths below 1,000 m and thus below the Ant
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