Crustaceans associated with cold water corals: a comparison of the North Atlantic and North Pacific octocoral assemblages

Crustaceans live on large colonial invertebrates for a variety of reasons, but in all cases must overcome the defenses of the host animal. We surveyed the crustaceans living on deep-sea octocorals collected during expeditions to the New England and Corner Rise seamounts (2003–2005) in the Northwest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Records of the Australian Museum
Main Authors: Les Watling, Lene Buhl-Mortensen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Australian Museum 2023
Subjects:
cold water corals
octocoral assemblages
new england seamounts
corner rise seamounts
aleutian ridge
Museums. Collectors and collecting
AM1-501
Evolution
QH359-425
Aleutian Ridge
Pacific
North Atlantic
Northwest Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1895
https://doaj.org/article/e1933e2048484a81a3d99a3fed5526da
Description
Summary:Crustaceans live on large colonial invertebrates for a variety of reasons, but in all cases must overcome the defenses of the host animal. We surveyed the crustaceans living on deep-sea octocorals collected during expeditions to the New England and Corner Rise seamounts (2003–2005) in the Northwest Atlantic and to the Aleutian Ridge (2004) in the North Pacific. Only a small number of crustacean species were found on octocorals in the Northwest Atlantic but a great many species, especially amphipods, were found on octocorals in the Northwest Pacific. We suggest that this disparity is due to both the differences in octocoral host dominance as well as differences in the available species pool between the two oceans.

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