Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8884470 | Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography | 2018 | 38 Pages |
Abstract
In this study, meiofauna communities were dominated by Nematoda (93%) and Copepoda (4%). The highest total abundance of meiofauna was found in the Puerto Rico trench and the lowest in the Western basin. We found significant differences between the Eastern and Western Atlantic basins, which were potentially caused by differences in current regimes. Stronger currents observed in the Western basin possibly led to the coarser sediment grain size observed in this region, and consequently to the lower abundances of the major groups found there. Besides grain size, the total abundance of meiofauna was significantly correlated with total nitrogen, total organic carbon, and water depth. Moreover, our study reveals a trend of increasing abundance of total meiofauna with increasing water depth in the Puerto Rico trench. Also, significant differences between the Western abyssal and the Puerto Rico trench were discovered. Generally, the meiofauna abundance in the investigated area decreased from East to West but increased with increasing water depth in the Puerto Rico trench. Due to funnelling of organic sediments increased food availability towards deeper regions in trenches could occur and promote higher abundance.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geology
Authors
Christina Schmidt, Kaibil Escobar Wolf, Lidia Lins, Pedro MartÃnez Arbizu, Angelika Brandt,