Missing link in the Southern Ocean: sampling the marine benthic fauna of remote Bouvet Island

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Arntz, Wolf, Thatje, Sven, Linse, Katrin, Avila, Conxita, Ballesteros, Manuel, Barnes, David, Cope, Thérèse, Cristobo, Francisco, Broyer, Claude De, Gutt, Julian, Isla, Enrique, López-González, Pablo, Montiel, Américo, Munilla, Tomás, Esplá, Alfonso Ramos, Raupach, Michael, Rauschert, Martin, Rodríguez, Estefanía, Teixidó, Núria
• Other Authors: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOC), University of Southampton, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Madrid (CSIC), Universidad de Barcelona, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Spain (USC ), Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique (IRSNB), Universidad de Sevilla / University of Sevilla, Universidad de Alicante, Ruhr-Universität Bochum Bochum
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2006
• Subjects: Polychaete; Southern Ocean; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctic Circumpolar Current; Weddell Gyre; [SDV.BID.EVO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Weddell Sea; Weddell; Bouvet; Bouvet Island; Bouvetøya; Antarc*; Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00093810; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0047-8

Bouvet (Bouvetøya) is a geologically young and very remote island just south of the Polar Front. Here we report samples taken during the RV “Polarstern" cruise ANTXXI/2 on 3 days in November 2003 and January 2004. This work was part of SCAR’s EASIZ programme and intended, by providing data on the marine fauna of this “white gap" in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, to contribute to identifying the role of Bouvet in the faunal exchange between the Sub- and high Antarctic. While this goal demands extensive molecular analysis of the material sampled (future work), a checklist of the samples and data at hand widens the faunal and environmental inventory substantially. We suggest some preliminary conclusions on the relationship of Bouvet Island’s fauna with that of other regions, such as Magellanic South America, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the high Antarctic Weddell Sea, which have been sampled previously. There seem to be different connections for individual higher taxa rather than a generally valid consistent picture.