Amphipod Fauna Enhances Understanding of Eastern Mediterranean Deep-Sea Biodiversity

The knowledge of the deep-sea amphipods is still much more limited than that of the shallow-water or more accessible marine habitats, albeit there has been a growing scientific interest in recent decades. Deep-sea amphipods are mainly scavengers and detritivores, contributing to organic matter recycling, nonetheless, their species richness may be underestimated, particularly in understudied basins like the deep Mediterranean Sea. Long-term monitoring data is very scant, hindering understanding of trends or human impacts. The present work aims to fill such a gap. In a previous investigation (1993-1996), twenty-two species of amphipods were identified from samples collected at depths ranging between 734 and 1558 m, along the Israeli coast. After twenty years, 20 sites were sampled in 2013 at depths between 198 and 1812 m. Amphipod assemblage and its bathymetric distribution were analyzed to improve the knowledge of the occurrence of this taxon and its temporal changes.