Ocean Biodiversity Information System. Macrobenthic species of the Eastern South Pacific (OBIS South America, SOUTH PACIFIC NODE). Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/gjtlz6 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-04-27.
Description
"Macrobenthic species of the Eastern South Pacific" In response to the characteristics of the various water masses involved, diverse soft-bottom communities occur under the Hulboldt Current System. While the shelf exhibits communities dominated by a variety of eukaryotes living under the oxic sub-Antarctic waters, beneath it a very diverse prokaryote-dominated system is found, in particular during the long inter-El Niño periods, under the hypoxic Sub-equatorial waters and within sulfide-rich sediments. Further down, normoxic Intermediate and Pacific Deep waters allow for a most varied benthic fauna where oasis of methane-seep dependent communities are also found. The collections here reported originate from samples taken during the development of FONDECYT Project 950001 (1996-97), the "MinOx" Cruise (Oxygen Minimum Zone cruise) to northern Chile of March 2000 and the German SONNE (PUCK) Expedition of 2001 along the Chilean margin (20 – 42o) and in the range of 20-2000m. Polychaeta was the numerically dominant group at all areas and depths, followed by peracarid crustaceans and small mollusks. This list includes some new species and many new records in the bathyal zone.