Species diversity and faunal affinities of meiobenthic Copepoda in the deep sea

✍ Scribed by B. C. Coull

• Book ID: 104741999
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1972
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 359 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00365780

✦ Synopsis

This first attempt at measuring species diversity of the numerically abundant marine meiobenthos on a vertical gradient into the deep sea supports the stability-time hypothesis developed with the maerofauna. Diversity, as measured by rarefaction, indicated highly evolved, stable and unique assemblages in the deep sea. Shelf samples were consistently dominated by a few ~ecies; below 1000 m many of the species were new and few were duplicated from sample to sample. Rarefaction curves are clearly separable for the three environments, with the vertical component of diversity increasing to abyssal depths. Rarefaction analysis of shelf samples above and below the Cape Hatteras zoogeographical boundary further revealed distinct splits in the faunal a~semblages. Faumal affixdty analyses indicate that the deep-sea fauna is not homogenonsly distributed over wide expanses of the ocean floor and are contrary to previously reported maerofaunal findings.