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Temporal patterns in diversity and species composition of deep-sea benthic copepods in bathyal Sagami Bay, central Japan

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Abstract

Little is known about temporal changes in the diversity and species composition of deep-sea metazoan meiofauna and their relationships with changes in the food supply. Those changes were studied for benthic copepod assemblages based on 2-year time-series data at a bathyal site in Sagami Bay (1430 m depth), central Japan, where annual fluctuation in the abundance of benthic foraminiferans was previously observed. Species diversity of benthic copepods at the site was as high as, or slightly higher than, that observed at other deep-sea sites, but did not fluctuate temporally through the study period. Multivariate analyses did not reveal any clear seasonal or directional change occurring over the longer term in their species composition, although there was some consistent pattern. These results indicate a lack of, or only weak, seasonality in the diversity and species structure of the deep-sea benthic copepod assemblages, even though the fresh organic food supply fluctuates seasonally. They also suggest that there are differences between copepods and foraminiferans in the response to changes in environmental factors, and that spatial differences in the composition of copepod communities are greater than temporal ones at this deep-sea site.

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Acknowledgements

We are most grateful to T. Toyofuku, A. Yamaoka, M. Tsuchiya, S. Fujiwara, T. Kosugi, K. Seki, T. Okamoto, S. Koide, M. Suzuki, M. Tazume, and H. Nomaki, the officers and crew members of the research vessel “Tansei-maru” of the Ocean Research Institute and of the research vessel “Rinkai-maru” of the Misaki Marine Biological Station, University of Tokyo, for their help in the field research. We also thank T. Nakatsuka, M. Morisawa, Y. Kato, Y. Okada, J. Kanda, R. M. Ross, T. Masuzawa, K. Suzuki, S. Ohta, K. Aioi, S. Kojima, E. Tsuchida, H. Yeh, H. Urakawa, M. Wada, and M. Nakaoka for their help and discussions throughout the study. Special thanks to three anonymous reviewers who kindly checked our manuscript. This study was partially supported by grants-in-aid 08304032, 06454008, and 08558061 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Japan, and by a research grant from Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (to Y.S.). The counter map (Fig. 1) was based on the data from Marine Information Research Center, Japan Hydrographic Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minami-dai, 164-8639, Tokyo, Nakano-ku, Japan

    M. Shimanaga

  2. Institute for Frontier Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushimacho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan

    H. Kitazato

  3. Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Shirahama, Nishimuro, Wakayama 649-2211, Japan

    Y. Shirayama

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  1. M. Shimanaga
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Correspondence to M. Shimanaga.

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Communicated by T. Ikeda, Hakodate

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Shimanaga, M., Kitazato, H. & Shirayama, Y. Temporal patterns in diversity and species composition of deep-sea benthic copepods in bathyal Sagami Bay, central Japan. Marine Biology 144, 1097–1110 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-003-1273-7

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