Metazoan meiofauna in Potter Cove, King George Island

G. VEIT-KÖHLER, J.C. ANTACLI & A. ROSE

Berichte zur Polar und Meeresforschung. Reports on Polar and Marine Research.

Helmholtz Gemeinschaft

Lugar: Bremerhaven, Alemania; Año: 2008 vol. 571 p. 135 - 140

1618-3193

It was the aim of this study to assess small- and meso-scale heterogeneity of meiofauna densities on soft-bottom sediments in Potter Cove. A comparison with the data from other Antarctic shallow water sites and a discussion whether usually applied sampling efforts induce reliable generalizations on meiofauna communities are presented. 18 higher metazoan taxa of the meiofauna size class have been found in the samples from Potter Cove. Nematoda were numerically dominant followed by Copepoda and copepod nauplii, Annelida, and Cumacea. Priapulida and Gastrotricha reached appreciable individual numbers only at 20 m depth. This study shows that the higher than usual sampling effort in our case rather leads to a more scattered than to a clearer picture. At the time being, generalizations cannot be made and further analyses on species level are necessary in order to investigate whether the soft-bottom sediments in Potter Cove are -although very variable on small scales - quite homogeneous in their patchiness at meso-scale level.