Meiofauna communities of continental slope and deep-sea sites off SE Brazil

Abstract

There is little meiofauna data from the southwest Atlantic, and especially lacking are studies examining deep-sea communities. In this study, the structure of meiofauna communities, particularly nematodes, was analyzed from data derived from 101 samples (48 samples on the continental-slope and 53 samples at a deep-sea site) collected at Campos Basin, SE Brazil. Differences in the meiofauna densities and in the number of taxa between continental slope and deep-sea sites depended on the taxonomic level examined. While total meiofauna abundance did not differ significantly between sites, nematode densities were significantly higher in the deep sea (mean of 157 inds.10 cm −2) than on the slope (mean of 129 inds.10 cm −2). The number of meiofauna taxa was significantly higher at the continental slope site. Yet for the most abundant meiofaunal group, the nematodes, whilst the number of families did not differ between continental slope and deep sites, the number of genera was significantly higher in the deep sea. The remarkable resemblance between the dominant nematodes ( Halalaimus, Acantholaimus, Daptonema, Theristus and Sabatieria) from SE Brazil and other deep sea studies confirmed earlier suggestions of a typical deep-sea nematode community with a broad geographical distribution. Multivariate analysis derived from meiofauna and nematode data showed that the structure of the fauna differed significantly between sites. Correlations detected between meiofauna and some sediment properties, such as grain size and sediment heterogeneity, although significant, were very low.