Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)

Until the early 1980s, the composition and distribution of the asteroid (starfish), ophiuroid (brittle star) and holothurian (sea cucumber) bottom fauna of the southeastern Weddell Sea was virtually unknown. This southernmost part of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean is a typical high-latitu...

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Published in:ZooKeys
Main Authors: Gutt, Julian, Piepenburg, Dieter, Voß, Joachim
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Pensoft Publishers 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141163
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4141163 2023-05-15T13:31:59+02:00 Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean) Gutt, Julian Piepenburg, Dieter Voß, Joachim 2014-08-14 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141163 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622 en eng Pensoft Publishers http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622 Julian Gutt, Dieter Piepenburg, Joachim Voß http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Data Paper Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622 2014-08-24T01:04:49Z Until the early 1980s, the composition and distribution of the asteroid (starfish), ophiuroid (brittle star) and holothurian (sea cucumber) bottom fauna of the southeastern Weddell Sea was virtually unknown. This southernmost part of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean is a typical high-latitude Antarctic region located in the circumpolar permanent pack-ice zone. It became accessible for large-scale scientific surveys only through the availability of modern ice-breaking research vessels, such as the German RV “Polarstern”. Here, we describe a dataset of the faunal composition and abundance of starfish, brittle star and sea cucumber assemblages in this area, based on collections from trawl catches carried out during three “Polarstern” cruises in 1983, 1984 and 1985. The set comprises a total of 4,509 records of abundances of 35 asteroid species (with a total of 2,089 specimens) and 38 ophiuroid species (with a total of 18,484 specimens) from 34 stations, as well as of 66 holothurian species (with a total of 20,918 specimens) from 59 stations including zero-abundances (absences). A synthesizing zoogeographical community analysis confirms the presence of three distinct assemblages of asteroids, ophiuroids, and holothurians with highest species richness on the eastern shelf. Overall, starfishes, brittle stars and sea cucumbers were present at all sites investigated in the study area but composition and abundance of asterozoan (asteroids and ophiuroids together) and holothurian fauna varied considerably. A synthesizing zoogeographical community analysis confirms the presence of three distinct assemblages of asteroids, ophiuroids, and holothurians with highest species richness on the eastern shelf. In the case of asterozoans, water depth and latitude seemed to be the most important drivers of assemblage distribution and composition. One of the holothurian assemblages was part of the rich macrozoobenthic community dominated by a diverse and abundant epifauna, mainly sponges and gorgonians. Another one was mainly ... Text Antarc* Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Weddell Sea ZooKeys 434 1 15
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Data Paper
spellingShingle Data Paper
Gutt, Julian
Piepenburg, Dieter
Voß, Joachim
Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
topic_facet Data Paper
description Until the early 1980s, the composition and distribution of the asteroid (starfish), ophiuroid (brittle star) and holothurian (sea cucumber) bottom fauna of the southeastern Weddell Sea was virtually unknown. This southernmost part of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean is a typical high-latitude Antarctic region located in the circumpolar permanent pack-ice zone. It became accessible for large-scale scientific surveys only through the availability of modern ice-breaking research vessels, such as the German RV “Polarstern”. Here, we describe a dataset of the faunal composition and abundance of starfish, brittle star and sea cucumber assemblages in this area, based on collections from trawl catches carried out during three “Polarstern” cruises in 1983, 1984 and 1985. The set comprises a total of 4,509 records of abundances of 35 asteroid species (with a total of 2,089 specimens) and 38 ophiuroid species (with a total of 18,484 specimens) from 34 stations, as well as of 66 holothurian species (with a total of 20,918 specimens) from 59 stations including zero-abundances (absences). A synthesizing zoogeographical community analysis confirms the presence of three distinct assemblages of asteroids, ophiuroids, and holothurians with highest species richness on the eastern shelf. Overall, starfishes, brittle stars and sea cucumbers were present at all sites investigated in the study area but composition and abundance of asterozoan (asteroids and ophiuroids together) and holothurian fauna varied considerably. A synthesizing zoogeographical community analysis confirms the presence of three distinct assemblages of asteroids, ophiuroids, and holothurians with highest species richness on the eastern shelf. In the case of asterozoans, water depth and latitude seemed to be the most important drivers of assemblage distribution and composition. One of the holothurian assemblages was part of the rich macrozoobenthic community dominated by a diverse and abundant epifauna, mainly sponges and gorgonians. Another one was mainly ...
format Text
author Gutt, Julian
Piepenburg, Dieter
Voß, Joachim
author_facet Gutt, Julian
Piepenburg, Dieter
Voß, Joachim
author_sort Gutt, Julian
title Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
title_short Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
title_full Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
title_fullStr Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
title_full_unstemmed Asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern Weddell Sea (Southern Ocean)
title_sort asteroids, ophiuroids and holothurians from the southeastern weddell sea (southern ocean)
publisher Pensoft Publishers
publishDate 2014
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141163
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622
geographic Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Weddell
Weddell Sea
geographic_facet Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Weddell
Weddell Sea
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Weddell Sea
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Weddell Sea
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622
op_rights Julian Gutt, Dieter Piepenburg, Joachim Voß
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.434.7622
container_title ZooKeys
container_volume 434
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