Zekely, J.; Gollner, S.; Van Dover, C. L.; Govenar, B.; Le Bris, N.; Nemeschkal, H. L.; Bright, M. (2006). Nematode communities associated with tubeworm and mussel aggregations on the East Pacific Rise. Cah. Biol. Mar. 47: 477-482.
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Zekely, J.; Gollner, S.; Van Dover, C. L.; Govenar, B.; Le Bris, N.; Nemeschkal, H. L.; Bright, M.
2006
Nematode communities associated with tubeworm and mussel aggregations on the East Pacific Rise
The meiobenthic nematode community of three different vent sites at the East Pacific Rise was studied in order
to determine whether the abundance, species richness, diversity and trophic structure were similar. The sites Tica and Riftia
Field were dominated by the tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, and the Buckfield site was dominated by the mussel
Bathymodiolus thermophilus. The nematode communities of all three sites were low in abundance (< 1 up to 46 ind. 10
cm–2), except one sample from Tica with almost 1000 ind. 10 cm-2. The communities at all sites consisted entirely of
primary consumers, mostly deposit feeders. Species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices were low and similar
at both tubeworm sites and slightly but significantly higher at the mussel site. Multivariate analysis revealed that the species
dissimilarity among the three sites was greater than 50 %, indicating distinct communities at each site.