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Decapod Assemblages in Mauritanian Waters

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Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania

Abstract

We studied the decapods collected in four trawling surveys conducted in Mauritanian waters, in 281 hauls performed at depths between 81 and 1825 m, in November–December 2007–2010. A total of 214,982 specimens with a biomass of 1.6 tonnes was captured, Nematocarcinidae being the most abundant family, mainly due to one single species, Nematocarcinus africanus . Parapenaeus longirostris and Glyphus marsupialis were the species that most contributed to the total biomass, while Acanthephyra pelagica was the most common in the studied area. With a total of 118 species, belonging to 39 families , Mauritanian waters are more diverse in decapods than other comparable zones, probably due to the coexistence of tropical and temperate species. Two new species were described and some records increased the geographic range of certain species in the Atlantic . Five main assemblages were identified: shelf (< 100 m), deep shelf-upper slope (100–400 m), deep reef (400–550 m), middle slope (550–1400 m) and deep slope (1400–1800 m). Species of each assemblage are typified. Depth was the main factor structuring the assemblages, along with depth-dependant variables such as bottom temperature, longitude and organic matter content. Latitude also influenced assemblage structure. Greatest abundance and biomass occurred on the deep reef , in relation to minimum oxygen values (1.0–1.3 ml l−1), which may favour the abundance of certain species, such as N. africanus, but negatively affect other species, resulting in a diversity reduction. Diversity generally increased with depth, the highest values being registered on the deep slope .

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Drs Enrique Macpherson, Pere Abelló and Enrique García Raso for their valuable contribution to the identification of several collected specimens, and to our teammates Caleli Burgos and Paqui Salmerón whose rigorous decapod sampling on-board Vizconde de Eza have enabled us to publish this research . Our gratitude also goes to Luis Miguel Agudo for carrying out the GIS spatial analysis of Fig. 9.5. We greatly appreciate the constructive revision and useful comments of the manuscript of the Editor Dr Ana Ramos and of the two reviewers, Dr Joan Cartes from Institute of Marine Sciences (Barcelona, Spain) and Dr Enrique Macpherson from Centre d’Estudis Avançats of Blanes (Girona, Spain). Finally, we thank Mar Fernández and Kim Eddy for their English revision.

This work was undertaken within the framework of the EcoAfrik project and has been partially funded by the MAVA Fondation pour la Nature (MAVA contract 12/87 AO C4/2012). This is ECOAFRIK publication number 10.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Puerto Pesquero, Muelle de Levante s/n, 11006, Cádiz, Spain

    Eva García-Isarch & Isabel Muñoz

  2. Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Susana S. de Matos-Pita & Fran Ramil

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Subida a Radio Faro, 50-52, 36390, Vigo, Spain

    Susana S. de Matos-Pita

  4. Institut Mauritanien de Recherches Océanographiques et des Pêches, BP 22, Nouadhibou, Mauritania

    Sidi M. Mohamed Moctar

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  1. Eva García-Isarch
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  2. Susana S. de Matos-Pita
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  3. Isabel Muñoz
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  4. Sidi M. Mohamed Moctar
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  5. Fran Ramil
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Correspondence to Eva García-Isarch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Español de Oceanografía , Vigo, Spain

    Ana Ramos

  2. Facultade de Ciencias do Mar, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    Fran Ramil

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía , Madrid, Spain

    José Luis Sanz

Annexe

Annexe

Annexe 9.1 Taxonomic list of decapods inhabiting the Mauritanian deep shelf and continental slope and their main biological variables (N Numerical abundance ; B biomass , in kg; O occurrence, % of stations; DR depth range, in m; LR latitudinal range, in °; H habitat , B benthic; P pelagic; N nectobenthic)
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García-Isarch, E., de Matos-Pita, S.S., Muñoz, I., Mohamed Moctar, S.M., Ramil, F. (2017). Decapod Assemblages in Mauritanian Waters. In: Ramos, A., Ramil, F., Sanz, J. (eds) Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1023-5_9

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