Ross Sea Mollusca from the Latitudinal Gradient Program: R/V Italica 2004 Rauschert dredge samples

By

Ghiglione, Claudio
Alvaro, Maria Chiara
Griffiths, Huw
Linse, Katrin
Schiaparelli, Stefano

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2013

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

341

Pages

37-48

Subjects

Antarctica , Aplacophora , Bivalvia , Gastropoda , Italica 2004 , Latitudinal Gradient Program , Mollusca , Monoplacophora , Polyplacophora , Rauschert dredge , Ross Sea , Scaphopoda

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.341.6031

 

Abstract

Information regarding the molluscs in this dataset is based on the Rauschert dredge samples collected during the Latitudinal Gradient Program (LGP) on board the R/V “Italica” in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) in the austral summer 2004. A total of 18 epibenthic dredge deployments/samplings have been performed at four different locations at depths ranging from 84 to 515m by using a Rauschert dredge with a mesh size of 500µm. In total 8,359 specimens have been collected belonging to a total of 161 species. Considering this dataset in terms of occurrences, it corresponds to 505 discrete distributional records (incidence data). Of these, in order of abundance, 5,965 specimens were Gastropoda (accounting for 113 species), 1,323 were Bivalvia (accounting for 36 species), 949 were Aplacophora (accounting for 7 species), 74 specimens were Scaphopoda (3 species), 38 were Monoplacophora (1 species) and, finally, 10 specimens were Polyplacophora (1 species). This data set represents the first large-scale survey of benthic micro-molluscs for the area and provides important information about the distribution of several species, which have been seldom or never recorded before in the Ross Sea. All vouchers are permanently stored at the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA), Section of Genoa, enabling future comparison and crosschecking. This material is also currently under study, from a molecular point of view, by the barcoding project “BAMBi” (PNRA 2010/A1.10).