Haploniscidae Brökeland & Svavarsson, 2017, n. sp.

• Main Authors: Brökeland, Wiebke, Svavarsson, Jörundur
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Greenland; Norwegian Sea; Iceland; Labrador Sea; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6008857; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6008857

Distribution of Haploniscidae at the Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge Ten species of the Haploniscidae were sampled during the BIOICE expeditions in the GIF area (Table 1, Figs 10– 12), eight species of Haploniscus and one species each of genera Antennuloniscus and Chauliodoniscus. By far the most frequent species was Haploniscus bicuspis with 11,410 specimens sampled at 136 stations (Table 1). H. foresti and A. simplex were also fairly frequent, occurring at 19 and 12 stations, with 1375 and 1816 specimens, respectively. Haploniscus aduncus occurred at ten stations, while Chauliodoniscus armadilloides was reported from 7 stations. The remaining species were found at one to four stations only, i.e. Haploniscus astraphes, H. ampliatus, H. angustus, H. hamatus, and H. spinifer. The only species occurring north of the Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge were Haploniscus bicuspis and H. angustus. Haploniscus ingolfi is the only other haploniscid species previously reported from the Nordic Seas (Wolff 1962; Svavarsson 1988), but was not found is this study. H. bicuspis and H. angustus were the only haploniscid species occurring at depths shallower than the saddle depth at 840 m on the Ridge and seem to be able to cross the shallow sills of the Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge and thus colonize the waters all around Iceland. Haploniscus bicuspis has been reported to be adapted to cold conditions around 0°C (Hansen 1916; Wolff 1962), and was here reported in many instances from temperatures below zero (as low as -0.86°C), but even at temperatures as high as 7.11° C. Accordingly, the species was found in a variety of water masses, such as the warm Modified North Atlantic Water (MNAW), the deep Labrador Sea Water (LSW) and the Iceland Sea Overflow Water (ISOW) south of Iceland, and even in the cold Norwegian Sea Deep Water (NSDW) in the deep north. The remaining species are confined to areas south of the Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge (Figs 10 – 12) and also to depths greater than 1200 m, holding higher (>2°C) bottom ...