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Thiel, Hjalmar (1972): Meiofauna and the structure of the benthic community in the Iberian deep sea basin [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605402, Supplement to: Thiel, H (1972): Meiofauna und Struktur der benthischen Lebensgemeinschaft des Iberischen Tiefseebeckens. Meteor Forschungsergebnisse, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Reihe D Biologie, Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin, Stuttgart, D12, 36-51

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Abstract:
1. On the cruises 3 and 15 of R.V. "Meteor" 6 grab samples, and 6 hauls with the 6 m Agassiztrawl were taken and at 2 stations the deep sea camera was lowered. This material gave quantitative results on the meiofauna and minimum counts of the macrofauna.
2. The nematodes constitute nearly 95% of the meiofauna, the copepoda only 2%. With increasing sediment depth the density of animals decrease gradually. In the uppermost centimeter of sediment 42.6% of the meiofauna are found while only 3.7% live in layer 6-7 cm. Meiofauna weight ranges from 0.6-5.7 mg/25 m**2 surface i.e. 0.24-2.8 g/m**2.
3. Mean numbers of individuals and weights show standard errors of 20-30 %. As an approximate average values for further considerations the weight of the meiofauna in the area was taken as 1 g/m**2
4. Quantitative information on the macrofauna is derived from the trawls and the photographs for the actinia Chitonanthus abyssorum only, which is found in the rate of 1 individual/36-72 m**2, but seems to be less abundant generally.
5. Animal density does not decrease steadily from nearshore to offshore biocoenoses, i.e. generally with increasing depth. The decrease is more pronounced for macro- than for meiofauna. For the deep sea the weight proportion of macrofauna : meiofauna is of the order of 1 : 1.
6. With the assumption, that adaptation of metabolism to deep sea conditions is similar in macro- and meiofauna
total metabolism of invertebrates is ascribed to meiofauna to more than 80%.
7. The structure of the biocoenosis of the deep sea floor is characterized by the meiofauna living on and in the sediment and by the dominance of sediment feeders in the macrofauna.
8. Considering the large numbets and high partition rates of bacteria a comparative large part of the metabolism in the deep sea sediment must be ascribed to bacteria. This favours the hypothesis, that with increasing depth and decreasing addition of organic material to the sediment, the importance of meiofauna and microorganisms for total metabolism increases.
9. Considering the different modes of food transport to the deep sea environment, i.e. sinking of dead particles, transport by vertical migration of organisms, aggregation of organic particles, adsorption of dissoloved organic substance to inorganic particles, and heterotrophy, the sediment may be assumed to contain more food for invertebrates than the water above the bottom.
10. Suspensions feeders of macrofauna are fixed to hard substrates in the sediment surface. Some of them are shown to bend themselves down to the bottom in underwater photographs. This suggests the idea that some deep sea suspension feeders partly depend on food from the sediment surface, on which they feed directly.
Project(s):
Atlantic Data Base for Exchange Processes at the Deep Sea Floor (ADEPD)
Funding:
Fourth Framework Programme (FP4), grant/award no. MAS3970126: Atlantic Data Base for Exchange Processes at the Deep Sea Floor
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 42.558741 * Median Longitude: -14.534822 * South-bound Latitude: 42.100000 * West-bound Longitude: -14.950000 * North-bound Latitude: 42.923333 * East-bound Longitude: -14.048333
Date/Time Start: 1966-03-04T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 1966-03-18T00:00:00
Event(s):
M3/1_012 * Latitude: 42.693333 * Longitude: -14.765000 * Date/Time: 1966-03-04T00:00:00 * Elevation: -5325.0 m * Location: Iberian deep sea * Campaign: M3 * Basis: Meteor (1964) * Method/Device: Box corer (Reineck) (BCR)
M3/1_018 * Latitude: 42.130000 * Longitude: -14.048333 * Date/Time: 1966-03-07T00:00:00 * Elevation: -5335.0 m * Location: Iberian deep sea * Campaign: M3 * Basis: Meteor (1964) * Method/Device: Box corer (Reineck) (BCR)
M3/1_021 * Latitude: 42.100000 * Longitude: -14.940000 * Date/Time: 1966-03-10T00:00:00 * Elevation: -5340.0 m * Location: Iberian deep sea * Campaign: M3 * Basis: Meteor (1964) * Method/Device: Box corer (Reineck) (BCR)
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
15 datasets

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Datasets listed in this publication series

  1. Thiel, H (1972): Grain size distribution of surface sediments of the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 2). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605387
  2. Thiel, H (1972): Distribution of meiofauna in surface sediments of the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 3). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605388
  3. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_012 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605389
  4. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_012 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605396
  5. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_018 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605390
  6. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_021 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605391
  7. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_021 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605397
  8. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_029 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605392
  9. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_029 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605398
  10. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_031 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605399
  11. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_031 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605393
  12. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_035 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605400
  13. Thiel, H (1972): Abundance of nematoda in sediment profile M3/1_035 from the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 5). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605394
  14. Thiel, H (1972): Numbers and weights of nematodes from surface sediments of the Iberian deep sea basin (Table 7). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.605401
  15. Thiel, H (1972): Meiofauna abundance in surface sediment sampled during cruise M3/1, Iberian deep sea basin (Table 4). https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.55327