Abstract
Distribution of abundance, biomass, productivity and production of macrozoobenthos was investigated in four study areas in the Magellan region (South Patagonian Ice-Field, Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Continental Shelf). Using a Reineck box corer and a multibox corer, a total of 277 quantitative benthos samples were taken at 78 stations in water depths between 8 and 1139 m during the Joint Chilean-German-Italian Magellan “Victor-Hensen Campaign” in 1994, the “Polarstern” expedition ANT XIII/4 in 1996 and the Chilean expeditions “Cimar Fiordo II + III” in 1996 and 1997, respectively, on board RV “Vidal Gormaz”. Mean abundance in the South Patagonian Ice-Field was significantly lower than in the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel. Biomass and abundance decreased clearly with depth (20–300 m to 700–1500 m: 3.9 gC m−2 to 0.6 gC m−2; 2832 ind. m−2 to 569 ind. m−2). Average abundance, biomass and production of the whole Magellan region are lower (2318 ind. m−2, 3.2 gC m−2, 0.62 gC m−2 year−1) than in the high Antarctic Weddell Sea. In the Magellan region, macrozoobenthos composition of abundance is mainly dominated by polychaetes (56%), followed by arthropods (16%), echinoderms (10%) and molluscs (11%). Comparisons of our present results with those of high Antarctic areas make it clear that the Magellan region has a transitional character.
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Accepted: 21 December 1998
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Thatje, S., Mutschke, E. Distribution of abundance, biomass, production and productivity of macrozoobenthos in the sub-Antarctic Magellan Province (South America). Polar Biol 22, 31–37 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050387
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050387