Asteroid fauna of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge: additional records

Abstract

New data on deep-sea starfish from the North Atlantic are presented, based on samples obtained in the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone area on three cruises of the RRS James Cook (years 2007, 2009 and 2010) in the framework of the ECOMAR project. Asteroids were collected at 19 stations at depths between 2272 and 2750 m. The collection includes 30 species, 11 of them recorded for the first time on the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Two new species of Hymenaster are described. For some species geographical and depth ranges were extended. An annotated checklist of asteroids collected on the ECOMAR cruises is provided.

Keywords:

• Asteroidea
• Hymenaster
• ECOMAR
• Mid-Atlantic Ridge
• North Atlantic

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the crew and research team of the RRS James Cook, especially Dr Andrey Gebruk and Antonina Rogacheva for asteroid samples. Special thanks to David Shale for outstanding photographs of starfishes taken on board. The author is grateful to Andrew Cabrinovic, Dr Tammy Horton, Dr Nadia Améziane and Dr Marc Eléaume for their help during visits to the Natural History Museum (London), National Oceanography Centre (Southampton) and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Special thanks to Professor Imants G. Priede and Dr Andrey Gebruk for advice and editing the style of English and the anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve this paper.

I thank the UK NERC-funded ECOMAR consortium (NE/C512961/1) for access to RRS James Cook samples from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Also, I am grateful for financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted to the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, MAR-ECO project, as well as the Otto Kinne Foundation.

Editorial responsibility: Andrey Gebruk

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark