Àngel Joan J Soto, Cantero Álvaro L Peña
Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology/Department of Zoology, University of Valencia..
Zootaxa. 2019 Mar 22;4570(1):zootaxa.4570.1.1. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4570.1.1.
Hydrozoans are a conspicuous component of Antarctic benthic communitites. Recent taxonomic effort has led to a substantial increase in knowledge on the diversity of benthic hydroids from some areas of the Southern Ocean, including the Weddell Sea, the largest sea in the Antarctic region. However, the study of many hydrozoan taxa are still pending, and the diversity in this huge region is expected to be higher than currently known. In order to contribute to the knowledge of taxonomy, ecology and distribution of these cnidarians, a study of unpublished material collected by several German Antarctic expeditions aboard the RV Polarstern in the eastern sector of the Weddell Sea has been conducted. A total of 77 species belonging to 22 families and 28 genera of benthic hydroids have been inventoried, constituting the most prolific collection hitherto analyzed. Most species (81%) belong to Leptothecata, but the observed share of Anthoathecata (19%) is higher than in previous Antarctic hydrozoan studies. Symplectoscyphidae was the most speciose family with 16 representatives (22%), followed by Haleciidae with 10 (14%) and Staurothecidae with 8 (11%). The number of species known in the area was increased with 27 new records, including several species rarely documented. As a result, the Weddell Sea becomes the second Antarctic region in terms of hydrozoan diversity, with 89 species known to date. Novel data on the use of substrate, reproductive phenology, and bathymetric range are provided for the inventoried species.
水螅虫是南极底栖生物群落的一个显著组成部分。最近的分类学研究使得我们对南大洋一些区域（包括南极地区最大的海域威德尔海）底栖水螅虫的多样性有了大幅增加的认识。然而，许多水螅虫类群的研究仍有待开展，预计这个巨大区域的多样性要高于目前已知的情况。为了增进对这些刺胞动物的分类学、生态学和分布的了解，我们对德国几次南极考察队乘坐“极地星号”科考船在威德尔海东部区域收集的未发表材料进行了研究。总共记录了属于22科28属的77种底栖水螅虫，这是迄今为止分析的最多产的样本集。大多数物种（81%）属于软水母目，但观察到的花水母目的占比（19%）高于以往的南极水螅虫研究。合鞘螅科是种类最多的科，有16个代表物种（22%），其次是海螅科有10个（14%），星螅科有8个（11%）。该区域已知的物种数量增加了27个新记录，包括几个鲜有记录的物种。因此，就水螅虫多样性而言，威德尔海成为南极的第二个区域，目前已知有89个物种。为已记录的物种提供了关于底物利用、繁殖物候和深度范围的新数据。
