Data from: Invertebrate biodiversity in cold groundwater fissures in Iceland ...

Iceland has an abundance of fissures that are parallel to the Mid-Atlantic ridge where bedrock cracks as a result of continental rifting. Some fissures penetrate the aquifer and expose the groundwater within the bedrock, becoming springs. As such, groundwater fissures have uniform and constant physi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ólafsdóttir, Jónína H., Þorbjörnsson, Jóhann G., Kristjánsson, Bjarni K., Ólafsson, Jón S.
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: Dryad 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rr2vp6g
https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rr2vp6g
Description
Summary:Iceland has an abundance of fissures that are parallel to the Mid-Atlantic ridge where bedrock cracks as a result of continental rifting. Some fissures penetrate the aquifer and expose the groundwater within the bedrock, becoming springs. As such, groundwater fissures have uniform and constant physical and chemical environment but they can differ greatly in morphology. In addition, there is often great variation in depth within fissures and substrate types contrast between vertical rock wall and more heterogenous horizontal bottom. The variation in morphological environment may create dissimilar habitats with unique characteristics and/or influence distribution of resources. Our objective was to study macrozoobenthos communities in cold groundwater fissures in Iceland in relation to physical habitat by comparing invertebrate diversity and density both between fissures with different morphological characteristics as well as between substrate types and depths within fissures. Samples were collected in two ... : Ólafsdóttir_Inv.Biodiv.Icel.FisFile contains macrozoobenthos density data from four groundwater fissure in Iceland collected at various depths within fissures and identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. Also included is information about the location of sampling sites. ...