The importance of pockmark and carbonate mound habitats for meiofauna diversity along the slope of Santos Basin, Southwest Atlantic

• Grant number: 24/06836-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Biological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Fabiane Gallucci
• Grantee: Isabela Ferrazoli Alejandro
• Host Institution: Instituto do Mar (IMar). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The deep sea, despite seemingly homogeneous, presents variable geological andhydrological characteristics that give rise to a mosaic of macrohabitats. These habitats offerunique conditions for marine life, allowing for the coexistence of diverse benthiccommunities along the ocean floor. As such, they play a fundamental role in determining betadiversity along the ocean floor. The Brazilian continental margin is an important region interms of natural resources and biodiversity, encompassing a wide variety of marinemacrohabitats. The Santos Basin, in particular, exhibits a complex underground structure,where pockmarks form as a result of fluid escape, facilitating colonization by cold-watercorals. Over geological time, the accumulation of these corals along the pockmarks hasresulted in the formation of large carbonate mounds. This project aims to describe meiofaunacommunities and Nematoda assemblages present in pockmarks and carbonate mounds on theslope of the Santos Basin and analyse patterns of structural variability of the communitiesbetween pockmarks, carbonate mounds, and adjacent sediments, seeking to contribute to theunderstanding of the role of these macrohabitats for deep-sea meiofauna diversity in theSouthwest Atlantic. This study is part of the 'Biology and Geochemistry of Oil and GasSeepages, SW Atlantic (BIOIL)' project of the University of São Paulo Institute (IOUSP) andfocuses on the continental slope of the Santos Basin (SB), comprising the isobaths from 350to 1000 meters.