Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the South-Eastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean) ...

• Main Author: Piepenburg, Dieter
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: SCAR - AntOBIS 2019
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Sea ice; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea; ice covered waters
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.15468/3pf2mg; https://www.gbif.org/dataset/a6058a01-5880-41f5-9dbf-3eef8591f714

The South-Eastern Weddell Sea in the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean is a typical high-latitude Antarctic region. It is located in the circumpolar permanent pack-ice zone (Hempel 1985a), characterized by summary polynyas (areas of open water surrounded by sea ice). Due to its remoteness and persistent sea-ice cover, it was not accessible for extensive scientific surveys before the availability and support of modern research platforms that are capable to operate independently in sea-ice covered waters. First multidisciplinary marine research was carried out in this area in the 1980s during the first Antarctic cruises of the German icebreaking research and supply vessel "Polarstern”. Embedded in a broad ecological research programme, addressing a range of evolutionary, systematic, zoogeographical and ecological issues, first comprehensive faunistic inventories of the asteroid (starfish), ophiuroid (brittle star) and holothurian (sea cucumber) bottom fauna were conducted, based on field sampling efforts ...