Die Große Meteorbank (Nordost-Atlantik) - Trittstein oder Abstellgleis? Quantitative Unteruchungen zur Verbreitung, der Diversität und dem Ursprung der benthonischen Kuppenfauna

由于海山的地形、大小和在海洋中的位置，与周围的深海相比，海山被认为拥有更多的生物量和“自然”和“遗传资源”的多样性。因此，海山的经济利益日益增加。尽管如此，在过去几十年对海山进行了相当零散的研究之后，最近的调查表明，对海山作用的这种概括可能没有道理。目前还不清楚为什么有些海山的物种越来越丰富，特有物种数量越来越多，生物量增加，而另一些海山则没有。过去，位于大西洋东北部的大流星海山曾几次成为主要进行定性生物研究的对象。虽然不足以健全的陈述有关的类群分布，地理，和高原动物区系的起源，所获得的数据集提供了一个基础，为正在进行的调查。拟议的巡航旨在收集相应的数据。计划检验以下三个假设：1.由于海山与世隔绝，它栖息着本地海底动物群，其中特有物种比例很高;2.迁移并生活在高原上的大型和大型底栖生物的代表可能来自邻近的地理区域和较浅的区域，而高原的小型底栖生物主要来自周围的深海;3.由于与周围深海相比，大流星海山的生产力相对较高，海山高原的物种密度高于周围深海。

Because of their topography, size and location in the oceans, seamounts are considered as harbouring an enhanced biomass and diversity of “natural” and “genetic resources” compared with the surrounding deep sea. Thus, seamounts are of increasing economical interest. Nonetheless, after rather spot-like studies on seamounts in the past decades, recent investigations indicate, that such generalization of seamounts’ roles may not be justified. It remains quite unclear, why some seamounts present increasing species richness, high number of endemic species, and increased biomass production, while others do not. In the past, the Great Meteor Seamount, located in the northeast Atlantic, has several times been the object of mainly qualitative biological research. Although being insufficient for sound statements regarding taxa distribution, biogeography, and origin of the plateau fauna, the obtained datasets provide a basement for ongoing investigation. The proposed cruise aims a corresponding data capture. It is planned to test the following three hypotheses:1. Because of the strong isolation of the seamount it inhabits an autochthonous bottom fauna with a high portion of endemic species;2. Whereas those representatives of macro- and megabenthos that immigrate and live on the plateau may recruit from adjacent geographical regions and rather shallow areas, the meiobenthos of the plateau mainly originates from the surrounding deep sea;3. Due to the relatively high productivity of the Great Meteor Seamount compared with the surrounding deep sea, the seamount’s plateau shows a higher species density than the latter.