Biodiversity of meiobenthic free-living nematodes of the southern Baltic Sea – Preliminary results of the community composition and structure in sandy sediments of Puck Bay

Abstract

This is the first attempt to assess the composition of meiobenthic free-living nematodes of Puck Bay, a large oligohaline water area in the southern Baltic Sea. Nematodes were studied from three stations (3–8 m water depths) in April and September 2011. The material consisted of 4164 nematode specimens identified in total to 37 genera with three multi-species genera and 44 putative species. The majority of the species are typical members of estuarine and brackish waters and have previously been recorded from the Baltic Sea. Hypodontolaimus setosus, Calomicrolaimus cf. honestus, Eleutherolaimus sabulicolus, Paracanthonchus spp., Viscosia viscosa, Gammanema sp. and Chitwoodia spp. were the numerically dominant taxa. The number of species recorded here is among the highest reported from the Baltic and constitutes a large proportion (25%) of the total set of species known to date from the Baltic Sea.

Key words:

• Brackish waters
• diversity
• free-living nematodes
• Puck Bay
• southern Baltic

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to express her deepest thanks to Jan Warzocha, Bartek Witalis and Tycjan Wodzinowski for their help with sampling and to Hanna Wróblewska for the preparation of nematode slides. Natalie Barnes is gratefully acknowledged for help with some nematode identifications and Mariusz Zalewski for pigment content analysis and providing the map of the area. Dorota Burska performed CHN analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This study was financially supported in the frame of statutory activities of the NMFRI.

Editorial responsibility: Danny Eibye-Jacobsen