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The marine environment of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula is characterised by three oceanographically distinct regions for which we linked continental-slope meiofaunal patterns and environmental drivers on a large scale (100–300 km among ecoregions). Samples for meiofauna communities and sediment analyses were collected with a multicorer, water-column data were derived from water samples and CTD recordings. Meiofauna communities including individuals from 19 higher taxa were compared to a set of 16 environmental variables. We detected significant differences between the communities of Weddell Sea and those of Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage. The amount of phytopigments in the sediment, their freshness and the silt and clay content were driving factors for this separation. The highest meiofauna abundances were found at slopes in the Weddell Sea. Food banks may facilitate high standing stocks. There, the highest ever recorded copepod percentages for the Antarctic were related to the highest phytopigment contents while nematodes were extremely abundant even in deeper sediment layers at stations with fresh organic material. For Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage a sampling scheme of slopes and adjacent troughs was applied. The two regions were divided into three geographical “areas” with the two “habitat” types investigated for each area. Multivariate non-parametric permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) showed that in Bransfield Strait slope and trough meiofauna communities differed significantly in all geographical areas while in Drake Passage this was only the case in the East. These differences were explained best by the regionally and topographically distinct characteristics of 7 out of 11 water-column and sediment-bound factors related to sediment grain size, food quantity and quality, water temperature and salinity. Environmental drivers of the benthic habitat are dependent on large-scale oceanographic conditions and are thus sensitive to changes in water mass characteristics, sea-ice cover and the related primary production.

Particulate organic carbon (POC) export fluxes generally reflect patterns of primary production in the upper ocean, sinking to the seabed and acting as a food source for benthic organisms. Data on meiobenthic communities from two SYSTem COupling cruises (SYSTCO) in the deep Southern Ocean (RV Polarstern ANT-XXIV/2, north–south transect along the prime meridian, and ANT-XXVIII/3, east–west transect along the Polar Front) were combined with surface and benthic environmental parameters, as well as POC flux estimates based on satellite measurements. It was tested to what extent meiofaunal communities were determined by prevailing conditions of an east–west increase in net primary productivity (NPP) and bottom Chlorophyll a (Chla) concentration, and a westwards, divergently decreasing estimated POC flux. Nematodes dominated the meiofauna (84.4–92.4%) and occurred with a westward increase in relative abundance and density for the ANT-XXVIII/3 stations, associated with a parallel increase in NPP and Chla. Nematode biomass was negatively correlated to the estimated POC flux. Along the north–south transect no significant correlation was found but higher estimated POC fluxes at stations south of the Polar Front were associated with higher meiofauna diversity and density at higher taxon level, while stations located at the Polar Front, which were associated with lower POC fluxes, contained communities with lower diversity and density.

During the RV Polarstern ANT XXIV-2 cruise to the Southern Ocean and the Weddell Sea in 2007/2008, sediment samples were taken during and after a phytoplankton bloom at 52°S 0°E. The station, located at 2960 m water depth, was sampled for the first time at the beginning of December 2007 and revisited at the end of January 2008. Fresh phytodetritus originating from the phytoplankton bloom first observed in the water column had reached the sea floor by the time of the second visit. Absolute abundances of bacteria and most major meiofauna taxa did not change between the two sampling dates. In the copepods, the second most abundant meiofauna taxon after the nematodes, the enhanced input of organic material did not lead to an observable increase of reproductive effort. However, significantly higher relative abundances of meiofauna could be observed at the sediment surface after the remains of the phytoplankton bloom reached the sea floor. Vertical shifts in meiofauna distribution between December and January may be related to changing pore-water oxygen concentration, total sediment fatty acid content, and pigment profiles measured during our study. Higher oxygen consumption after the phytoplankton bloom may have resulted from an enhanced respiratory activity of the living benthic component, as neither meiofauna nor bacteria reacted with an increase in individual numbers to the food input from the water column. Based on our results, we infer that low temperatures and ecological strategies are the underlying factors for the delayed response of benthic deep-sea copepods, in terms of egg and larval production, to the modified environmental situation.

Based on a large-scale, long-term lugworm exclusion experiment established on an intertidal sand flat in Konigshafen (Sylt, North Sea), the effect of ecosystem engineering by the lugworm Arenicola marina on the meiofaunal community was studied. Samples for sediment and meiofauna analyses were taken from a lugworm exclusion plot three years after lugworms were excluded, a disturbed control plot and a pristine ambient plot. Statistical analyses revealed significantly higher concentrations of total organic matter and chloroplastic pigments at the lugworm exclusion site. The median abundance of total meiofauna was 21–29% higher at the lugworm-free site as compared to the lugworm-inhabited sites. Copepoda and Nematoda were distributed homogeneously over all experimental plots while Ostracoda and copepod nauplii reached their highest abundances in the absence of lugworms. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed significant differences between the copepod species composition of the experimental sites. While the harpacticoid copepod Arenosetella germanica reacted with a decline in individual numbers to lugworm exclusion, Halectinosoma gothiceps and Asellopsis intermedia benefited from the induced changes in the sediment characteristics. Overall, a higher copepod species diversity and evenness was observed at the lugworm exclusion site. The results of this study indicate that sediment-mediated effects of bioturbating organisms influence the abundance and diversity of surface-living meiofauna.

Multicorer samples for meiofaunal study were obtained within the framework of the international project CeDAMar, at 21 stations occupied during the DIVA and ANDEEP campaigns (2000, 2002 and 2005) to the southern Atlantic Ocean (Guinea, Angola and Cape Basins) and the Southern Ocean (Weddell and Scotia Seas), respectively. A total of 311 adult Paramesochridae Lang, 1944 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) was extracted from 437 cores obtained during 83 deployments of the corer at depths between 1107 and 5655 m. All specimens were determined to species based on morphological characteristics. They belonged to 19 species and four genera (Kliopsyllus Kunz, 1962, Leptopsyllus T. Scott, 1894, Paramesochra T. Scott, 1892 and Scottopsyllus Kunz, 1962). Eleven species were restricted to single regions,whereas the others showed a much wider distribution. For example, Kliopsyllus andeep Veit-Köhler, 2004 and Kliopsyllus diva Veit-Köhler, 2005, were both collected from Guinea, Angola and Weddell Abyssal Plains,and Kliopsyllus schminkei Veit-Köhler & Drewes, 2009 occurred in the three West-African basins. This study provides a first insight into the large-scale biogeography of deep-sea harpacticoids, represented by the Paramesochridae, and indicates that distribution ranges, at least in this family, may extend across South Atlanticand Southern Ocean Abyssal Plains.

Two of the sites sampled during the DIVA-1 cruise (Meteor 48/1) to the Angola Basin in 2000 have been studied intensively in order to highlight the diversity of meiofauna in this deep-sea region. This work contributes to the final aim to describe the species of the community of harpacticoid copepods in the Angola Basin and adds a new member to the few hitherto known deep-sea Paramesochridae. The new species belongs to the genus Kliopsyllus, until now only reported from beaches, the intertidal and shallow waters and thus thought to be representing a mainly interstitial group. Furthermore, Kliopsyllus diva sp. n. is the dominating paramesochrid copepod at the two studied sites with depths of more than 5400 m. Among other features, K. diva sp. n. is unique in the armature of its fourth leg, the presence of hedgehog-like arranged spinules on the exopod of the fifth leg and the relation of length and width of its furcal rami.

The international scientific deep-sea cruise ANDEEP-2 (ANT XIX/4) to the Scotia Arc and the northern Weddell Sea in 2002 revealed a new species of the family Paramesochridae (Copepoda: Harpacticoida). Kliopsyllus andeep sp. n. can be distinguished from its congeners by characteristics such as a two-segmented endopod on the fourth leg and an additional seta on the endopod of the third leg. The most striking feature is its strong, flexed, chitinous thorns on the telson. Only three species in the family have such appendages, all of them interstitial, shallow-water species. Because the new species lacks the strong abdominal muscle observed by Kunz in Kliopsyllus furcavaricatus Kunz, 1974, it cannot spread its furcal rami using the thorns on the telson as antagonists the way the shallow-water species does. The furcal-rami spreading system, which is an adaptation to interstitial living, for K. andeep sp. n. is irrelevant, because the species has been collected from muddy sediments. Therefore, the abdominal muscle might have been lost during the species’ evolution.

Meiofauna standing stocks and community structure are reported for the first time for abyssal soft-sediment samples in Antarctic waters. At seven stations within a depth range of 2274–5194 m a total of 128 sediment cores were retrieved with a multiple corer (MUC) on board of the R.V. Polarstern during the ANDEEP-1 cruise (ANT XIX/3). The metazoan meiofauna (defined by a lower size limit of 40 μm) was identified and counted, and one core per station was preserved for CPE, C/N, TOM and grain size analyses. Meiofauna densities are in the range of 2731 Ind./10 cm2 at 2290 m depth and 75 Ind./10 cm2 at 3597 m depth, with nematodes being the dominant group at all stations. Nematodes account for 84–94% followed by copepods with 2–8% of the total meiofauna. Other frequent taxa found at each station are kinorhynchs, loriciferans, tantulocarids, ostracods and tardigrades. There is a general tendency of decreasing abundances of metazoan meiofauna with increasing depth, but not all higher level taxa displayed this pattern. In addition, a tendency of decreasing higher taxon density with increasing depth was observed. Standing stocks are higher than the average found at similar depths in other oceans.