Biodiversity and Chemical Interactions in Antarctic Benthic Communities of Deception Island (South Shetland Islands) = Biodiversidad e Interacciones Químicas en las comunidades bentónicas Antárticas en Isla Decepción

• Main Author: Angulo Preckler, Carlos
• Other Authors: Ávila Escartín, Conxita, Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universitat de Barcelona 2015
• Subjects: Bentos; Benthos; Biodiversitat; Biodiversidad; Biodiversity; Antàrtida; Regiones antárticas; Antarctica; Ciències Experimentals i Matemàtiques; 59; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; South Shetland Islands; Bransfield Strait; Deception Island; isla Decepción; Port Foster; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/385350

This Thesis covers two different topics in Antarctic marine benthic invertebrates. The two main goals are: 1) to improve the knowledge of the biodiversity of the shallow water benthic communities inside Deception Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica), and 2) to establish the chemical ecology of selected Antarctic organisms, by studying the antifouling and antimicrobial activity of their organic extracts. Deception Island is an active volcano on the southwestern end of the South Shetland Island chain. This island chain parallels the northeastern curvature of the Antarctic Peninsula, but is separated from the Antarctic continent by the narrow Bransfield Strait. Volcanic activity is believed to be the key environmental component that controls epibenthic and infaunal invertebrate populations in Port Foster. Compared to nearby islands, Deception Island is clearly defaunate at depth, and since the last eruption in 1970, has been considerably recolonized. However, many taxa are still very poorly represented and the colonizer species are mainly those with planktotrophic larvae. Interestingly, the soft-bottom benthos communities of the shallowest zone of Port Foster has been barely and poorly explored yet. A complete study of the benthic invertebrate shallow community at Deception Island was conducted, looking for a comprehensive view of this singular spot working at different trophic levels. Shallow-water sediment at Deception Island is inhabited mostly by opportunistic, motile species, living under the influence of serious and long-lasting disturbances, related more to high sedimentation rates within the bay and the absent of hard substrata, than with the ice-scouring or anchor-ice disturbances (mostly absent inside the caldera, but common elsewhere in Antarctica). The trophic relationship between the water and benthic community has been described in four stages; (i) particulate matter is suspended from the seafloor into the water column; (ii) nutrients stimulate bacterial and phytoplankton production, which ...