The diversity of polychaetes (Annelida: Polychaeta) in a long-term pollution monitoring study from the Levantine coast of Turkey (Eastern Mediterranean), with the descriptions of four species new to science and two species new to the Mediterranean fauna

ABSTRACT

During a relatively long-term pollution monitoring study between 2015 and 2021 (annually between 2015 and 2019; triennially after 2019), a total of 257 polychaete species belonging to 40 families were identified at 17 soft bottom stations (depth range: 11–89 m) along the Levantine coast of Turkey. Among them, four species belonging to Hesionidae (Oxydromus digitifera sp. nov.), Orbiniidae (Leitoscoloplos mediterranea sp. nov.), Paraonidae (Paraonis lobulata sp. nov.) and Capitellidae (Barantolla cryptogenica sp. nov.) are new to science, two species belonging to Cirratulidae (Chaetozone elakata) and Ampharetidae (Anobothrus amoureuxi) are new additions to the Mediterranean fauna and 28 species are new additions to the marine fauna of Turkey. Among the families, Spionidae (29 species), Syllidae (22 species) and Paraonidae (22 species) accounted for 28% of the total number of species, and Capitellidae, Lumbrineridae and Spionidae comprised 45% of the total number of individuals. The most dominant species in the region were Lumbrineris geldiayi, Notomastus mossambicus and Prionospio saccifera. A total of 20 alien species belonging to 12 families were found in the region, with N. mossambicus and P. saccifera accounting for more than 85% of the total number of individuals of alien species. The new species are described and compared to the closely related species.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8E09CE08-AA44-46F4-A59B-3DE19D42EB4B

KEYWORDS:

• Polychaeta
• species list
• new species
• new records
• alien species
• Levantine Sea
• eastern Mediterranean

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ‘Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring 2015–2019 Programme’ carried out by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change/General Directorate of EIA, Permit and Inspection/ Department of Laboratory, Measurement and coordinated by TUBITAK- MRC ECPI. Material from the Sea of Marmara was collected during the project TUBITAK 111Y268.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.