Tanaidacean fauna of the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and adjacent abyssal plain – abundance, diversity and rare species

Here we examine the distribution patterns, abundance, and species richness of tanaidacean peracarids in the abyssal-hadal transition zone. Material was collected in the region of Kuril–Kamchatka Trench during the German–Russian KuramBio Expedition with use of a giant boxcorer (GKG) of sampling area 0.25 m2. In the 23 samples collected from depths 4900 to 5800 m 48 species of Tanaidacea belonging to 11 families have been identified; most of the species (80%) are new to science. There was no evidence of a distribution pattern associated with depth or geographic location of stations in the nMDS analysis. Frequency of occurrence of twelve species was high (at 34–78% of stations) although the stations were distributed along a distance of about 1000 km. This observation is rationalized by the uniform environmental conditions of temperature, hydrostatic pressure, salinity, conductivity, and character of bottom deposits in the investigated area. Mean tanaidacean densities were 25.0±18.0 ind./0.25 m2, with mean values of species richness (number of species per sample) and diversity (Shannon Index) as high as 9.7±4.6 and 1.9±0.3 respectively. Singletons constituted about 20% of all species and more than one third of the species occurred as low counts per sample. The species accumulation curve did not reach the asymptotic level suggesting under-sampling of the studied area.