Meiobenthic biodiversity of the formerly iceshelf-covered Larsen A and B areas west of the Antarctic Peninsula

该项目旨在研究地球上受影响最严重的地区——南极半岛中新生群落对气候变化的反应。在这个地区，它利用了一个独特的自然实验：1995年至2002年间，由于强烈的区域变暖，南极拉森a和B冰架最近发生了断裂。作为一项初步研究，该项目将对该地区未来气候诱导的小动物变化（小动物：小于1毫米大小的生物）的研究至关重要。以羽足类桡足类为重点，将前冰架内部的新底世组合与前冰架边缘附近和冰架覆盖区域外的组合进行比较。在这里，具有特殊生态学意义的是，低生产力的拉森B区内部的低底生陆架组合是否与南极深海的陆架组合相似，这方面存在一些关于大型底栖动物的证据。此外，最近在Larsen B地区发现的一个冷渗层（甲烷和硫化物从海底渗出的地方）的小底栖生物也将被研究，这是南极大陆架上已知的第一个冷渗层。为了更详细地了解该地区的群落多样性，进行了多尺度采样；这样就有可能在不同的尺度上评价多样性，并获得比过去通常情况下更现实的总体多样性估计。该项目不仅有助于了解气候变化引起的冰架解体事件后，南极水域中新生生物的殖民化。这也将为探讨生产力-多样性假说以及生物多样性在不同空间和分类尺度上的作用提供有趣的新事实。

This project aims at studying the response of meiobenthic communities to climate change in a most drastically affected area of our planet, the Antarctic Peninsula. In this region it makes use of a unique natural experiment: the recent break-up of the Antarctic Larsen A and B iceshelves between 1995 and 2002, caused by strong regional warming. As an initial study the project will be crucial for future research on climateinduced meiofaunal changes (meiofauna: organisms smaller than 1 mm size) in this region. Focussing on harpacticoid copepods, meiobenthic assemblages from inside the former ice shelves will be compared to those near former ice margins and outside the iceshelf-covered areas. Here it is of special ecological interest whether meiobenthic shelf assemblages of the low-productive inner Larsen B area resemble those of the Antarctic deep sea, for which some evidence exists regarding the macrobenthos. Furthermore, the meiobenthos of a cold seep (a spot where methane and sulphide seeps from the sea ground) recently discovered in the Larsen B area, the first one known from the Antarctic shelf, is to be studied. In order to gain detailed insight into the meiofaunal diversity of the region, multiscale sampling was performed; by this it will be possible to assess diversity on different scales and to obtain more realistic estimates on overall diversity than it was often the case in the past. The project will not only help to understand meiobenthic colonisation in Antarctic waters after iceshelf disintegration events caused by climate change. It will also provide interesting new facts for discussions on the productivity-diversity hypothesis and the acting of biodiversity on different spatial and taxonomical scales.