Benthic polychaetes from the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the Azores and the Reykjanes Ridge

Abstract

The polychaete macrofauna of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the Azores (42°N) and the southern tip of the Reykjanes Ridge (54°N) was studied based on the material obtained during the R/V G.O. Sars MAR-ECO cruise in 2004 and the two RRS James Cook ECOMAR cruises in 2007 and 2009. Polychaetes were collected from 28 trawl catches at depths from 981 to 3527 m. In total, 457 specimens were obtained and identified to 34 species-level taxa belonging to 18 families. Of the 34 species, 22 could be identified to known species (4 with reservation). Only 12 species were represented in more than 3 samples, and only 8 species were represented by more than 10 specimens. Lumbriclymenella nasuta comb. nov. is formally redescribed and the taxonomic status of Laetmonice britannica is raised from subspecies to species level. Several possibly undescribed species are present in the material, but lack of sufficient material prevents formal descriptions. Taxonomic remarks and figures are included for future reference.

Keywords:

• MAR-ECO
• ECOMAR
• North Atlantic
• mid-ocean ridge
• bathyal fauna
• Polychaeta

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

We thank Andrey Gebruk for collecting the material during the R/V G.O Sars MAR-ECO cruise in 2004, and the UK NERC-funded ECOMAR consortium (NE/C512961/1) for access to the RRS James Cook samples from the Mid Atlantic Ridge; Katrine Kongshavn and Beate Helle for help with editing figures and plates; Katrine Kongshavn and the staff at the Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, UoB for taking the SEM images; Danny Eibye-Jacobsen (ZMUC) and Gudmundur Gudmundsson (IMNH) for loan of specimens. We gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments by two anonymous referees. This work was partly supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (N.B., grants number 10-04-01687, 12-05-33049) and by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (N.B., contracts number 8132). This work was an element of MAR-ECO, a field project under the Census of Marine Life programme.

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