Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T18:28:00.194Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Diversity of Nematode Communities in the Southern North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

C. Heip  and
W. Decraemer
C. Heip
Affiliation:
Zoology Department, State University of Ghent, Belgium
W. Decraemer
Affiliation:
Zoology Department, State University of Ghent, Belgium
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Diversity is one of the most important parameters used in the description of a community; several theories relating diversity to other phenomena as predation, competition and stability have been proposed (Pianka, 1966). As a result of the increasing interest in diversity a number of studies have appeared during recent years, but the meiofauna has until recently been almost completely neglected, rather surprisingly when one considers the importance of this group of organisms in all marine benthic communities. Coull (1972) studied recently the diversity of harpacticoid copepods, with nematodes the major meiobenthic component, along the North Carolina shelf and in the deep sea. Warwick & Buchanan (1970) appear to be the only ones to have studied diversity in nematode communities, using α of the logarithmic series (Fisher, Corbett & Williams, 1943) as a diversity measure. The paucity of data seems primarily to be due to the taxonomic difficulties encountered in studying nematodes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , February 1974 , pp. 251 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Coull, B. C., 1972. Species diversity and faunal affinities of meiobenthic Copepoda in the deep sea. Marine Biology, 14, 48–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R. A., Corbett, A. S. & Williams, C. B., 1943. The relation between the number of species and the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population. Journal of Animal Ecology, 12, 42–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, B. E. & Meyers, S. P., 1967. Population studies on benthic nematodes within a sub-tropical seagrass community. Marine Biology, 1, 85–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, W. R., 1964. A rapid centrifugal-flotation technique for separating nematodes from soil. Plant Disease Reporter, 48, 692.Google Scholar
Mcintyre, A. D. & Murison, D. J., 1973. The meiofauna of a flatfish nursery ground. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 53, 93–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, P. G., 1971. The nematode fauna associated with the holdfasts of kelp (Laminaria hyperborea) in north-east Britain. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 51, 589–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Planka, E. R., 1966. Latitudinal gradients in species diversity; a review of concepts. American Naturalist, 100, 33–46.Google Scholar
Pielou, E. C., 1969. In An introduction to mathematical ecology, 286 pp. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Warwick, R. M., 1971. Nematode associations in the Exe estuary. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 51, 439–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warwick, R. M. & Buchanan, J. B. 1970. The meiofauna off the coast of Northumberland. I. The structure of the nematode population. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 50, 129–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar