Nematodes community composition and environmental parameters, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula

This study provides a snapshot of the largely understudied meiobenthic and nematode communities in the Prince Gustav Channel and Duse Bay. We compared five stations sampled at different water depths along the shelf and investigated their meiobenthic community structure. We approached nematode biodiversity comparing traditional taxonomic identification and high throughput sequencing (HTS), with the use of Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs). Additionally, we characterized the environment by primary production proxies, grain size and seasonal ice conditions. Our results suggest that the availability of organic matter and its freshness are responsible for the high densities found at all depths. However, potential factors influencing the high local and regional variability of meiofauna density and biodiversity are less clear. A bathymetric transect consisting of three stations in Duse Bay (200 m, 500 m and 1000 m depth) showed increasing pigment concentrations in the first centimeters of the ...

本研究对鲜少被研究的古斯塔夫王子海峡（Prince Gustav Channel）与杜塞湾（Duse Bay）的小型底栖生物（meiobenthic）及线虫（nematode）群落开展了快照式调查。我们选取陆架区域不同水深的5个采样站位，对其小型底栖生物群落结构展开对比分析。针对线虫生物多样性，我们分别采用传统分类学鉴定方法与结合扩增子序列变异体（Amplicon Sequence Variants, ASVs）的高通量测序（high throughput sequencing, HTS）手段进行对比研究。此外，我们通过初级生产力替代指标、沉积物粒度与季节性海冰状况对研究区域的环境特征进行了表征。研究结果表明，有机质的可获得性及其新鲜程度是所有水深站位均出现较高生物密度的关键原因。然而，影响小型底栖生物密度与生物多样性呈现高局地和区域变异性的潜在驱动因素仍不明确。由杜塞湾内3个站位组成的水深断面（水深分别为200 m、500 m与1000 m）的表层沉积物前几厘米内的色素浓度呈上升趋势的……