Epibenthic sled versus giant box corer – Comparison of sampling gears for tanaidacean species richness assessment in the abyssal benthic ecosystem. (February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jóźwiak, Piotr; Pabis, Krzysztof; Brandt, Angelika; Błażewicz, Magdalena
• Is Part Of: Progress in oceanography. Volume 181(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Subjects: Sampling gear -- Biodiversity -- Deep sea -- Sampling efficiency -- Patchiness -- Rarity -- Western Pacific -- Kuril-Kamchatka Trench; Oceanography -- Periodicals; 551.4605
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102255
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0079-6611

Abstract

Highlights: Low replicability from KKT area suggests a patchy distribution of abyssal tanaids. KuramBio results shows a depth related sampling bias in benthic marine studies. KKT and adjacent areas are undersampled in regard to benthic fauna. Quantitative and semiquantitative gears should be used complementary. Abstract: Species richness is an important biodiversity measure that strongly relies on the sampling gear used. We have compared the efficiency of two types of sampling gears (camera-epibenthic sled – C-EBS and giant box corer – BC) for species richness assessment of Tanaidacea in the abyssal plain of the region of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. In terms of species richness small, benthic, brooding tanaidaceans are amongst the most highly underestimated groups of the deep-sea macrofauna and can be treated as a model group for such a study. Large numbers of singletons and doubletons (25% of species in BC, 24% of species in C-EBS) together with steep species accumulation curves suggest substantial undersampling. The total number of species and the number of unique species collected by each gear was higher in the C-EBS (77 and 44 species respectively) than in the BC (46 and 11 species respectively) but those differences seem to be low taking into account the total sampled area (5.75 m 2 of seafloor for BC, and 53, 709 m 2 for C-EBS). Thirty-three species were collected with both gears. Therefore, efficiency of the point sampler (BC) was very high. The comparison of replicability (2 replicate stations per site) showed that only 13–60% (BC) and 22–58% (C-EBS) of species recorded at any given site can be found in both replicates, suggesting a highly patchy distribution of abyssal tanaidaceans. On the other hand many species were recorded in more than ten samples (both in BC and C-EBS). Our results indicate important gear-specific problems suggesting that it would be difficult to say if observed patterns (e.g., the level of patchiness or rarity of a particular species) are true or caused by sampling artefacts.