Abstract
There are important gaps to understand the composition of the fauna associated with macroalgae, such as, how distinct algal morphology and environmental features, like turbulence or circulation patterns, may affect the distribution of them. In this study, macroalgae and associated fauna samples were undertaken between 4 and 12-m depth at three sites within the Admiralty Bay, King George Island, during the austral summer of 2000/2001. Previous physical oceanography data from the bay showed that each of these sites featured different circulation regimes. Differences and similarities in composition and density of the fauna associated with five species of macroalgae with different morphologies were analyzed: foliose (Monostroma hariotii and Palmaria decipiens); mixed (Myriogramme mangini); and branched (Desmarestia menziesii and Phaeurus antarcticus). Results showed differences in density, dominance of taxa, and richness among taxonomic groups of the associated fauna were related to algal morphology and circulation patterns. The dominance of epifaunal groups among macroalgae (e.g., D. menziesii, M. hariotii, and M. mangini) showed an adaptive response to different water flow settings within the bay, particularly in the community under the most intense flow. Further studies on associated fauna, should consider other environmental physical features and take our study like baseline to understand how major processes (e.g., climate change, seawater properties and circulation) may affect the communities, especially in more vulnerable shallow water zones.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the members of the XIX Brazilian Antarctic Expedition, PROANTAR, S. Bromberg, and the divers A. Athiê and R. Skowronski. We are grateful to SeCIRM for logistical support. P. Gheller is acknowledged for helping in the sorting of animals, and the statistical analysis. We thank the English-speaking editors of American Journal Experts for the first review of this manuscript. We are thankful for the Polar Biology reviewers. We are especially grateful to Heike Lippert, Margaret O Amsler, David K Barnes and Mattias Cape for their useful comments and suggestions to this manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Council for Research and Development (CNPq, Portuguese acronym) process 480251/00-2 to T.N.C., and F.E.P received a CNPq fellowship process number 190224/00-2.
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Elias-Piera, F., Rossi, S., Petti, M.A.V. et al. Fauna associated with morphologically distinct macroalgae from Admiralty Bay, King George Island (Antarctica). Polar Biol 43, 1535–1547 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02726-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02726-y