Benthic meiofauna diversity and nematoda functional feeding groups on the Northeast Greenland (NEG) shelf during POLARSTERN cruise PS109

• Main Authors: Da Costa Monteiro, Luana, Lins, Lidia, Braeckman, Ulrike
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2024
• Subjects: feeding types; FRAM; FRontiers in Arctic marine Monitoring; glacier; interstitial; NEW Polynya; Northeast Water Polynya; outflow shelf; sediment; species composition; Arctic; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.959825; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.959825

Between September and October 2017, MUC cores were deployed at various locations across the Northeast Greenland (NEG) shelf with R/V Polarstern during PS109. Samples for meiofauna were collected with a cut-off 10 ml syringe (area 1.89 m²) that was inserted to 5 cm depth sediment depth in the MUC core, and subsequently sliced in 5 horizons of 1 cm. Afterwards, meiofauna were extracted from the samples by triple density centrifugation with the colloidal silica polymer LUDOX TM 40 (Heip et al., 1985) and rinsed with freshwater on stacked 1 mm and 32 µm mesh sieves. The fraction retained on the 32 µm mesh sieve was preserved in 4 % Li2CO3-buffered formalin and stained with Rose Bengal. All metazoan meiobenthic organisms were classified at higher taxonomic levels and counted under a stereoscopic microscope (Leica MZ 8, 16x5x). All Nematodes of each sample were handpicked with a fine needle, transferred to glycerine (De Grisse I, II and III) (Seinhorst, 1959) , mounted on glass slides, identified to genus level and allocated to functional feeding groups based on Wieser, 1953 (as selective deposit feeders - 1A, non-selective deposit feeders - 1B, epistratum feeders - 2A and predators/scavengers - 2B).