Amundsen Sea Mollusca from the BIOPEARL II expedition

• Published in: ZooKeys
• Main Authors: Camille Moreau, Katrin Linse, Huw Griffiths, David Barnes, Stefanie Kaiser, Adrian Glover, Chester Sands, Jan Strugnell, Peter Enderlein, Paul Geissler
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2013
• Subjects: Zoology; QL1-991; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Austral; Amundsen Sea; Island Bay; Pine Island Bay; Antarc*; Antarctica; Pine Island
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.294.4796; https://doaj.org/article/fc2d8454c1e442e8ae6385441ce13500

Information regarding the molluscs in this dataset is based on the epibenthic sledge (EBS) samples collected during the cruise BIOPEARL II / JR179 RRS James Clark Ross in the austral summer 2008. A total of 35 epibenthic sledge deployments have been performed at five locations in the Amundsen Sea at Pine Island Bay (PIB) and the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) at depths ranging from 476 to 3501m. This presents a unique and important collection for the Antarctic benthic biodiversity assessment as the Amundsen Sea remains one of the least known regions in Antarctica. Indeed the work presented in this dataset is based on the first benthic samples collected with an EBS in the Amundsen Sea. However we assume that the data represented are an underestimation of the real fauna present in the Amundsen Sea. In total 9261 specimens belonging to 6 classes 55 families and 97 morphospecies were collected. The pecies richness per station varied between 6 and 43. Gastropoda were most species rich 50 species followed by Bivalvia (37), Aplacophora (5), Scaphopoda (3) and one from each of Polyplacophora and Monoplacophora.