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Records of Normanellidae Lang, 1944 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from Madeira island support the hypothetical role of seamounts and oceanic islands as “stepping stones” in the dispersal of marine meiofauna

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Abstract

Many meiofauna species show a wide and even amphioceanic distribution with populations separated by thousands of kilometres of oceanic deep sea despite their apparently limited dispersal potential (the “meiofauna paradox”). Several studies have attempted to explain this contradiction. One hypothesis is that seamounts act as “stepping stones” in the dispersal of meiofauna, supporting the colonisation of remote habitats by chance dispersal. This would be confirmed if meiofauna species were found on oceanic elevations located between apparently fragmented populations. To test this hypothesis we studied the littoral Normanellidae (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) of the Portuguese islands Madeira and Porto Santo and reviewed their known geographical distribution. All three species of Normanellidae recorded on Madeira were already described from other inshore shallow-water habitats. Furthermore, we also recovered one of these species, Normanella pallaresae, formerly only known from the Argentinian coast, on the summit of Seine Seamount, in the adjacent deep sea of Sedlo Seamount and in a Mediterranean cave. The presence of this species on the Atlantic elevations provides a link in its amphiatlantic distribution and faunistic evidence for the “stepping stone” hypothesis. A re-description of Normanella pallaresae is also provided.

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Notes

  1. Pallares (1975) described individuals from the mouth of the Rio Deseado (Argentina), which she assumed to be representatives of N. minuta. Because of several clear differences between the documented specimens of Pallares (1975) and the original description of N. minuta, Lee and Huys (1999) renamed the Argentinian species in N. pallaresae.

  2. the term “extreme eurybathic” is used here to express a depth distribution range of more than 1000 m

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to Dr. Manfred Kaufmann, Dr. Manuela Maranhão, Sérgio Castro, Filipe Henriques (Universidade da Madeira, Madeira Island, Portugal), and Florian Müller (Universität Oldenburg, Germany), for their help and support to JP during the sampling on Madeira and Porto Santo. Elena Friedrich (trainee in 2013 at Senckenberg am Meer, DZMB, Germany) is thanked for her help with sorting the samples. We are grateful to Dr. Kai Horst George (Senckenberg am Meer, DZMB, Wilhelmshaven, Germany) for very helpful comments and discussions and to Dr. Natalie Barnes (London, UK) for the English revision of the manuscript. Annika Janssen (Senckenberg am Meer, DZMB, Wilhelmshaven, Germany) is thanked for kindly providing the harpacticoid material sampled in a Mediterranean cave (Janssen et al. 2013). Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive and helpful comments. Sampling on Madeira and Porto Santo by JP and processing of the derived material was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (GE 1086/14/1).

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  1. Senckenberg am Meer, DZMB – Deutsches Zentrum für Marine Biodiversitätsforschung, Südstrand 44, D-26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Jana Packmor

  2. Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, D-26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    Tabea Riedl

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  1. Jana Packmor
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  2. Tabea Riedl
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Correspondence to Jana Packmor.

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Communicated by P. Martinez Arbizu

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Packmor, J., Riedl, T. Records of Normanellidae Lang, 1944 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from Madeira island support the hypothetical role of seamounts and oceanic islands as “stepping stones” in the dispersal of marine meiofauna. Mar Biodiv 46, 861–877 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0448-7

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