Abstract
We present DNA taxonomy of abyssal polychaete worms from the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), central Pacific Ocean, using material collected as part of the Abyssal Baseline (ABYSSLINE) environmental survey cruises ‘AB01’ and ‘AB02’ to the UK Seabed Resources Ltd (UKSRL) polymetallic nodule exploration contract area ‘UK-1’, the Ocean Mineral Singapore exploration contract area ‘OMS-1’ and an Area of Particular Environmental Interest, ‘APEI-6’. This is the fourth paper in a series to provide regional taxonomic data with previous papers reporting on Cnidaria, Echinodermata and Mollusca. Taxonomic data are presented for 23 species from 85 records within four polychaete families: Capitellidae, Opheliidae, Scalibregmatidae and Travisiidae, identified by a combination of morphological and genetic data, including molecular phylogenetic analyses. Two taxa (genetically separated from one another) morphologically matched the same known cosmopolitan species, Ophelina abranchiata that has a type locality in a different ocean basin and depth from where no genetic data was available. These two species were assigned the open nomenclature ‘cf.’ as a precautionary approach in taxon assignments to avoid over-estimating species ranges. Twelve (12) taxa are here described as new species, Ammotrypanella keenanisp. nov., Ammotrypanella kerstenisp. nov., Ophelina curlisp. nov., Ophelina ganaesp. nov., Ophelina juhazisp. nov., Ophelina martinezarbizuisp. nov., Ophelina meyeraesp. nov., Ophelina nunnallyisp. nov., Oligobregma brasieraesp. nov., Oligobregma tanisp. nov., Oligobregma whaleyisp. nov. and Travisia ziegleraesp. nov. For the remaining nine taxa, we have determined them to be potentially new species, for which we make the raw data, imagery and vouchers available for future taxonomic study. The CCZ is a region undergoing intense exploration for potential deep-sea mineral extraction from polymetallic nodules. We present these data to facilitate future taxonomic and environmental impact study by making both data and voucher materials available through curated and accessible biological collections.
Highlights
In the last decades there has been rapid growth in the commercial exploration of the abyssal deep sea for mineral resources (Gollner et al 2017)
We present DNA taxonomy of abyssal polychaete worms from the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), central Pacific Ocean, using material collected as part of the Abyssal Baseline (ABYSSLINE) environmental survey cruises ‘AB01’ and ‘AB02’ to the UK Seabed Resources Ltd (UKSRL) polymetallic nodule exploration contract area ‘UK-1’, the Ocean Mineral Singapore exploration contract area ‘OMS-1’ and an Area of Particular Environmental Interest, ‘APEI-6’
One area that has received particular attention is the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central Pacific Ocean which is extremely rich in high-grade polymetallic nodules (Baker and Beaudoin 2013; Hein et al 2013)
Summary
In the last decades there has been rapid growth in the commercial exploration of the abyssal deep sea for mineral resources (Gollner et al 2017). As such we use from hereafter a working definition of the CCZ as the box: 13°N, 158°W; 18°N, 118°W; 10°N, 112°W; 2°N, 155°W This is an area of almost 6 million km, approximately 1.4% of the ocean’s surface, that is undergoing intense deep-sea mineral exploration for high-grade polymetallic nodules regulated by Sponsoring States (nation states that support a contractor) and the International Seabed Authority. Despite a large number of both mineral exploration and purely scientific expeditions to the CCZ area, not much of the collected macrofauna have been properly identified and entered in publicly accessible museums and biogeographic databases This is in part due to the fact that most of the species are new to science The published papers include Echinodermata (Glover et al 2016b), Cnidaria (Dahlgren et al 2016), and Mollusca (Wiklund et al 2017), while other taxa are in preparation, forming a suite of taxonomic syntheses of biodiversity in the region, supported by a contract between the UKSRL, the Natural History Museum, London and NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Bergen
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