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Do Antarctic benthic invertebrates show an extended level of eurybathy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2004

T. Brey
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
C. Dahm
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
M. Gorny
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
M. Klages
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
M. Stiller
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
W.E. Arntz
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Postfach 120 161, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany

Abstract

Depth distribution data were compared for 172 European and 157 Antarctic benthic invertebrate species occurring in the respective shelf areas. Antarctic species showed significantly wider depth ranges in selected families of the groups Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Amphipoda and Decapoda. No differences were found in Polychaeta, Asteroidea and Ophiuroidea, where European species also showed comparatively wide bathymetric ranges. These extended levels of eurybathy in the Antarctic benthos may be interpreted either as an evolutionary adaptation or pre-adaptation to the oscillation of shelf ice extension during the Antarctic glacial-interglacial cycle.

Type
Papers—Life Sciences and Oceanography
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1996

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