Meiobenthos and nematode assemblages from different deep-sea habitats of the Strait of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

Much attention is currently devoted at upgrading our knowledge on biodiversity and functioning of deep water ecosystems. Information is constantly enriched by researchers, even from basins as the long-studied Mediterranean Sea. In such a perspective, we studied meiobenthic and nematode communities inhabiting muddy sediments from three different habitats at bathyal depths in the Strait of Sicily: a cold-water coral site (CS) in the Maltese Coral Province, a muddy bottom in the same area (MS), and a hydrocarbon imprinted pockmark site (PS) in the Gela Basin. The average meiofauna density at CS (1343 ind/10 cm 2 ) and MS (1804 ind/10 cm 2 ) is much higher than that reported in literature for similar habitats; it is also markedly more elevated than that recorded at PS (224 ind/10 cm 2 ). Although nematodes of the three sites show different abundances, they share similar assemblage structure. Nematodes (avg. 86%) and copepods (avg. 9.3%) were the most abundant meiofaunal taxa at all sites followed by annelids, kinorhynchs and turbellarians. Nematodes were composed by 21 families and 46 genera, with Terschellingia as most abundant genus (12.4%), followed by Microlaimus (11%), Daptonema (11%), Thalassomonhystera (10.8%), Acantholaimus (9.5%) and Sabatieria (8.7%). The genera Thalassomonhystera, Terschellingia, Microlaimus, Daptonema, Chromadorita, Sabatieria, and Anticoma display a dominance in at least one station. The taxonomic structure of meiofaunal communities of the studied sites is rather similar but differences in relative abundance are evident.

Diversity and Distribution of Prokaryotes within a Shallow-Water Pockmark Field

“…Higher benthic diversity has been associated with pockmark structures in the Mediterranean Sea (Zeppilli et al, 2012 ; Taviani et al, 2013 ; Sandulli et al, 2015 ), in the Atlantic Ocean (Olu-Le Roy et al, 2007 ), and North Sea (Dando et al, 1991 ; Dando, 2001 ), as well as at several other locations (Judd and Hovland, 2007 ). In pockmarks, spatially heterogeneous microbial and faunal assemblages have been reported in the past (Dando et al, 1991 ; Levin, 2005 ), possibly connected to differences in fluid regimes among pockmarks situated in the same fields.…”

Meiofaunal communities and nematode diversity characterizing the Secca delle Fumose shallow vent area (Gulf of Naples, Italy)

“…Despite their ubiquitous distribution in tectonically active coastal zones, shallow-water vents have been less explored than deep-sea vents in terms of biodiversity and adaptations to extreme conditions (Colangelo et al, 2001;Tarasov et al, 2005). Investigations focusing on the characterization of meiofaunal organisms inhabiting shallow vent sediments are still scant compared to that on macrobenthic communities and they span different geographical areas, from Mediterranean Aegean Sea Fitzsimons et al, 1997;Thiermann, Windoffer & Giere, 1994;Thiermann et al, 1997), Tyrrhenian Sea (Colangelo et al, 2001;Panieri et al, 2005Panieri et al, , 2006aDi Bella et al, 2016), Adriatic Sea (Panieri, 2006b), Strait of Sicily (Sandulli et al, 2015) to New Zealand (Kamenev et al, 1993), Papua New Guinea (Tarasov et al, 1999), Indonesian archipelago (Zeppilli & Danovaro, 2009), the shallow sub-polar region of the Mid Atlantic Ridge (Fricke et al, 1989), Azores (Cardigos et al, 2005), and including the comprehensive reviews by Tarasov et al (2005) and Zeppilli et al (2018).…”

Peer Review #2 of "Meiofaunal communities and nematode diversity characterizing the Secca delle Fumose shallow vent area (Gulf of Naples, Italy) (v0.1)"

“…Mediterranean Aegean Sea (Dando et al, 1995;Fitzsimons et al, 1997;Thiermann et al, 1994;Thiermann et al, 1997), Tyrrhenian Sea (Colangelo et al, 2001;Panieri et al, 2005;Panieri, 2006a;Di Bella et al, 2016), Adriatic Sea (Panieri et al, 2006b), Strait of Sicily (Sandulli et al, 2015) to New Zealand (Kamenev et al, 1993), Papua New Guinea (Tarasov et al, 1999), Indonesian archipelago (Zeppilli & Danovaro, 2009), the shallow sub-polar region of the Mid Atlantic Ridge (Fricke et al, 1989), Azores (Cardigos et al, 2005), and including the comprehensive reviews by and Zeppilli et al (2018).…”