Biodiversity hotspots are routinely identified by grid‐based analyses, despite grids encompassing different habitats, thus hindering the potential to assess which habitat type accounts for the ...conservation priority assigned to a grid. In this study, we aimed at identifying the main hotspots for the conservation of the European stygobitic Crustacea Copepoda Harpacticoida at the groundwater habitat scale. A multi‐metric approach was used, based on six biodiversity indicators: species richness, endemicity, evolutionary origin, phylogenetic rarity, taxonomic distinctness, habitat specificity. The Hot Spot Analysis, based on the statistics Getis‐Ord Gi*, was used to compare the local to the global average values of each indicator to identify hotspots of conservation. The operational units used to perform the analyses were the groundwater habitat types, in order to gather all the possible patterns of spatial occupancy in terms of habitat variability. Eight biodiversity hotspots of stygobitic Crustacea Harpacticoida were highlighted: 1) the Pyrenees (Spain and France), 2) the Jura Massif (France), 3) the Alpine arc (France, Switzerland and Italy) embracing southward the River Po alluvial plain and the Slovenian External Dinarides, 4) the Central Apennines (Italy), 5) the Carpathian and Balkan mountains in Romania and at the boundary between western Bulgaria and north‐west Macedonia, 6) the Dinaric Alps (from Croatia to Albania), 7) the Sardinia Island, 8) an area in central‐northern Europe embracing Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. The hotspots showed a clear spatial distribution in southern Europe where they were distributed predominantly south to the 45th parallel, in line to what reiteratively observed in previous studies. Many hotspots embraced more than one habitat type. The adoption of discrete groundwater habitat types as working spatial units rather than grids provided a higher resolution of where the stygobitic harpacticoid species effectively live, with the possibility of intervening more precisely to preserve them and their habitats.
The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout and oil spill of 2010 released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Spill-related contaminants that sank to the seafloor pose risks to ...benthic fauna living within bottom substrates that are unable to avoid exposure due to their relatively sedentary existence. Metazoan meiofauna are abundant and diverse members of deep-sea soft-sediment communities and play important roles in ecosystem function. We investigated the deep-sea metazoan meiofauna community response to the DWH blowout and oil spill at 66 stations ranging from <1 km to nearly 200 km from the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 wellhead. Metazoan meiofauna abundance, diversity, and the nematode to copepod ratio (N:C) varied significantly across impact zones. Nematode dominance increased significantly with increasing impacts, and N:C spiked near the wellhead. Conversely, major taxonomic diversity and evenness decreased in zones of greater impacts that were in closer proximity to the DWH wellhead. Copepod abundance and the abundance of minor meiofauna taxa decreased where impacts were most severe, and at these severely impacted stations the abundance of ostracods and kinorhynchs was negligible. Increasing abundance and dominance by nematodes with increasing impacts likely represent a balance between organic enrichment and toxicity. Spatial analysis of meiofauna diversity and N:C at 66 stations increased our spatial understanding of the DWH benthic footprint and suggests expanded spatial impacts in areas previously identified as uncertain.
The first description/overview of the freshwater copepod fauna of the order Harpacticoida from the Lena River delta is presented. Various habitats and regions were studied. As a result, we identified ...18 species belonging to two families: Canthocamptidae and Harpacticidae. Eight of the identified species are new to the study area; five species belonging to the genera
Bryocamptus
,
Canthocamptus
,
Moraria
, and
Maraenobiotus,
presumably represent new species for science. We provide brief ecological descriptions of the species identified in the Lena River delta and analyze their differences from the typical populations. The harpacticoid fauna of the Lena delta consists of three main components including Palaearctic species, Holarctic species, and species with “Beringian” distribution patterns. We provide a morphological description of
Bryocamptus umiatensis
Wilson 1958. This species is quite similar to
Bryocamptus jejuensis
Lee and Chang 2016, recently described from Korea. The main character distinguishing these species is the ornamentation of the anal operculum. This character in our region reveals considerable interpopulation variations. We also provide an identification key to the freshwater Canthocamptidae of the Lena delta.
Copepods are gaining attention as superior viable live feed for larviculture and as ecological bioindicators. One of the possible candidates from Malaysia is Leptocaris canariensis (Copepoda: ...Harpacticoida). However, little is known about the molecular aspect of this species. In this study, DNA of individual L. canariensis was extracted and the partial mitochondrial CO1 gene was successfully amplified using universal primers LCO-1490 and HCO-2198. A 582 bp partial mitochondrial CO1 gene sequence was obtained. Analysis of partial CO1 sequences of L. canariensis revealed 100% similarity among all the individual copepods, verifying the purity of samples and the consistency of the optimized extraction and amplification protocols done in this study. BLAST analysis confirmed that the obtained sequences were from CO1 region and of copepod origin (with E-value < e-10). Phylogenetic analysis of L. canariensis along with selected outgroups from different taxa level further supports the purity of L. canariensis maintained and validates the taxonomy of L. canariensis up to the subclass level: Copepoda. This study serves as the first documentation of molecular studies done on harpacticoids from the genus Leptocaris. The availability of L. canariensis partial CO1 sequence as reference will spearheads many more research in various fields in the near future.
A new species of genus Halectinosoma Vervoort, 1962 was collected from the east coast of Korea. The genus Halectinosoma comprises about 70 species, but only three species have previously been ...reported in East Asia. Halectinosoma munmui sp. nov. is morphologically most closely related to H. langi Wells 1967 from Inhaca Island, Mozambique, and H. oblongum (Kunz, 1949) from Heligoland island, Germany, however clearly distinguishable from it based on the following morphological characteristics: 5-segmented and elongated female antennule, mandible gnathobase without seta, about 5.6 times as long as the greatest width of the basis of the maxilliped, and outer seta of the P5 endopodal lobe longer than the inner seta. A key to species of the curticorne-group of Halectinosoma is provided.
All available data on the distribution of freshwater harpacticoids (Copepoda) in Grande de Tierra del Fuego Island are summarized. Attheyella (Delachauxiella) nuda Lëffler, 1961 inhabiting wet mosses ...in the valley of Martial Glacier near Ushuaia is newly established. The site marks the southernmost distribution of the species in Argentina.
Deep-sea metazoan meiofaunal specimens are usually extracted from muddy samples by centrifugation in a fluid in which meiofauna tend to float and sediment particles tend to sink. Although the ...procedure is in common use, its efficiency has seldom been examined. The study reported here showed that well-trained operators extracted metazoan meiofauna with efficiencies that were different enough to be a concern in quantitative studies. Therefore, samples should be assigned to operators in a stratified-random manner. In the course of these studies, both operators also extracted individuals of the common nematode family Desmoscolecidae significantly less efficiently than other nematode families, a bias that could interfere with studies that compared relative abundances of nematode families.
•Most deep-sea meiofaunal samples are extracted by floatation, e.g., in Ludox®.•Operators differed significantly in extraction efficiency.•Operators extracted desmoscolecids significantly less well than nondesmoscolecids.
The meiobenthic harpacticoids of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman has been almost unknown. During October 2014 to September 2016, interstitial and phytal harpacticoids were collected from tide ...pools in 30 different localities along the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The new information on the distribution of 26 species and 12 families is provided, here. The most species-rich family was Laophontidae with seven species, followed by Miraciidae with four species. In this paper, all the species were considered new records for the area. Furthermore, the first checklist of meiobenthic Harpacticoids is provided.
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