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

该项目旨在研究南极半岛这一地球上受影响最严重地区的小型底栖动物群落对气候变化的反应。在该地区，它利用了一项独特的自然实验：由于强烈的区域变暖，南极拉森A和B冰盖最近在1995至2002年间解体。作为一项初步研究，该项目将对该区域未来气候引起的小型动物变化(小型动物：小于1毫米的生物)的研究至关重要。我们将把前冰架内部的小底栖动物组合与前冰缘附近和冰盖区域外的小底栖动物组合进行比较，重点放在腹足类桡足类动物上。在这里，低生产力的内拉森B地区的小型底栖动物陆架组合是否类似于南极深海的陆架组合具有特殊的生态学意义，这方面存在一些关于大型底栖动物的证据。此外，最近在拉森B地区发现的第一个在南极大陆架上发现的冷泉(甲烷和硫化物从海面渗出的地点)的小型底栖动物还有待研究。为了详细了解该区域小型底栖动物的多样性，进行了多尺度抽样；这样就有可能对不同尺度的多样性进行评估，并获得比过去通常情况下更现实的总体多样性估计。该项目不仅将有助于了解气候变化导致的冰川解体事件后南极水域的小型底栖动物殖民现象。它还将为关于生产力-多样性假说和生物多样性在不同空间和分类尺度上的作用的讨论提供有趣的新事实。

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.