Mega-epibenthos at Bouvet Island (South Atlantic), supplement to: Gutt, Julian; Fricke, Anna; Teixidó, Núria; Potthoff, Michael; Arntz, Wolf E (2006): Mega-epibenthos at Bouvet Island (South Atlantic): a spatially isolated biodiversity hot spot on a tiny geological spot. Polar Biology, 29(2), 97-105

Mega-epibenthic diversity was analysed using a seabed photography at four stations off Bouvet Island and one station at the Spiess Seamount in the South Atlantic. Surprisingly, the intermediate-scale diversity within the area of investigation was not lower compared to that on the Patagonian shelf an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gutt, Julian, Fricke, Anna, Teixidó, Núria, Potthoff, Michael, Arntz, Wolf E
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2006
Subjects:
Photo sledge
ANT-XXI/2
Polarstern
Archive of Underwater Imaging AUI
Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone EASIZ
Antarctic
Bouvet
Bouvet Island
Spiess Seamount
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Sea ice
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.728134
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.728134
Description
Summary:Mega-epibenthic diversity was analysed using a seabed photography at four stations off Bouvet Island and one station at the Spiess Seamount in the South Atlantic. Surprisingly, the intermediate-scale diversity within the area of investigation was not lower compared to that on the Patagonian shelf and only moderately lower than that on the Antarctic continental shelf. This result is incompatible with Mac Arthur and Wilson's Island Biogeography Theory describing species richness as a function of immigration of new species into an area and its extension. The relatively high species number and the very small extension of the Bouvet shelf compared to the much larger continental shelves of the other two areas can be explained by long-range dispersal of marine benthic animals in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and high habitat heterogeneity. The observed uncoupling of intermediate-scale from large-scale background species diversity on the Antarctic shelf raises the question whether in these benthic systems an upper capacity limit for diversity exists.

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