Meiobenthic communities in the deep-sea sediment of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the northeast Pacific

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the community structure and distributional pattern of meiobenthos in the deep-sea bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone of northeastern Pacific during July 2001. Examination of sediment samples collected on the eight survey station showed that there were 10 different types of meiobenthos. The most abundant meiobenthic animals were nematodes in all stations. Sarcomastigophorans, benthic harpacticoids were next abundant meiobenthos. Vertical distribution of meiobenthic animals showed the highest individual numbers in the surface sediment layers of 0-1 cm depth and showed more steep decreasing trend as sediment gets deeper on the stations of high latitude located in 16-17°N. Horizontal distribution of meiobenthic animal in the study area within CCFZ showed high densities of meiobenthos at the stations had few manganese nodules on their sediment surface in the site of low latitude. For size distribution analyses showed that animals which fit into the sieve mesh size of 0.063 mm were abundant.