Sipuncula from the Alboran Sea and Ibero-Moroccan Bay

• Published in: Journal of natural history Vol. 24; no. 5; pp. 1143 - 1177
• Main Authors: Salinas, J.I. Saiz, Urchegui, L. Villafranca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis Group 01-10-1990; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Alboran Sea; Annelida and closely related phyla: sipuncula. Echiura. Nemertinea; Biological and medical sciences; community composition; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Ibero-Moroccan Bay; Invertebrates; Marine; Sipuncula; systematics; MED, Alboran Sea; MED, Gibraltar Strait; Marine environment; Species diversity; Sipuncula; Faunal survey; Geographic distribution; Taxonomy; Morphology; Atlantic Ocean; Invertebrata; Mediterranean Sea
• ISSN: 0022-2933; 1464-5262
• DOI: 10.1080/00222939000770711

Sipunculans collected during the operations of 'Balgim' Survey of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (PIROCEAN), are recorded and data concerning them noted. The specimens come from the Alboran Sea, Straits of Gibraltar and Ibero-Moroccan Bay and from depths ranging from 115 to 2110m. Twenty-four species (plus four additional species identified incompletely) in eight genera are recognized; five of them, Nephasoma confusum, N. lilljeborgi, N. rimicola, Phascolion caupo and Aspidosiphon zinni, were not recorded hitherto from the investigated area. Not included in the identification list are several small, immature or problematical specimens, which were not assigned to any of the known species. Classification and ordination techniques indicate a close funal relationship between vertically similar stations, showing three major groups. The first one with Aspidosiphon muelleri as characteristic species, is common of shallower bottoms; the second one, with N. constrictum as characteristic species, of deeper bottoms. Both show preferences for bottoms with shell and coral fragments. Apionsoma murinae represents the core species of the remaining group correlating with bottoms of finer sediments.