Population Genetics of the Deep-sea Acorn Barnacle (Hoek, 1883) and the First Report of its Affiliation with a Hydrothermal Vent Field.

Confined by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the European continental shelf, the deep-sea acorn barnacle (Hoek, 1883) lives in the northeast Atlantic deep sea, where it has been frequently reported in high current areas. Cemented to a solid substrate during its entire adult life, the species can only disperse by means of planktotrophic nauplius larvae. This study reports on the occurrence, ecology and genetic connectivity of from four sites within the northeastern Iceland Basin and presents the first record of the species living affiliated with hydrothermal vent field on the Reykjanes Ridge axis.

Highly structured populations of copepods at risk to deep-sea mining: Integration of genomic data with demogenetic and biophysical modelling.

Copepoda is the most abundant taxon in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where hard substrate is available. Despite the increasing interest in seafloor massive sulphides exploitation, there have been no population genomic studies conducted on vent meiofauna, which are known to contribute over 50% to metazoan biodiversity at vents. To bridge this knowledge gap, restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing, specifically 2b-RADseq, was used to retrieve thousands of genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from abundant populations of the vent-obligate copepod Stygiopontius lauensis from the Lau Basin.

Mixtophyes toothlessi sp. n., a new Kinorhyncha species (Anomoirhaga: Neocentrophyidae) from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, with a revision of terminology and taxonomic features of the family.

A new species of Mixtophyes Sánchez et al. 2014 is described from the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (north-eastern Pacific Ocean). The new species is characterised by the presence of spinose processes on segments 1-11 in middorsal position and on segments 1-10 in midlateral position, paired paradorsal setae on segments 2, 4-6 and 8-9, and unpaired ones on segments 3 and 7, paired setae in paralateral and ventrolateral positions on segments 2-9.

Carbonate compensation depth drives abyssal biogeography in the northeast Pacific.

Abyssal seafloor communities cover more than 60% of Earth's surface. Despite their great size, abyssal plains extend across modest environmental gradients compared to other marine ecosystems. However, little is known about the patterns and processes regulating biodiversity or potentially delimiting biogeographical boundaries at regional scales in the abyss.

Proteomic fingerprinting enables quantitative biodiversity assessments of species and ontogenetic stages in Calanus congeners (Copepoda, Crustacea) from the Arctic Ocean.

Species identification is pivotal in biodiversity assessments and proteomic fingerprinting by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry has already been shown to reliably identify calanoid copepods to species level. However, MALDI-TOF data may contain more information beyond mere species identification. In this study, we investigated different ontogenetic stages (copepodids C1-C6 females) of three co-occurring Calanus species from the Arctic Fram Strait, which cannot be identified to species level based on morphological characters alone.