Asociaciones de crustáceos capturados con arte de arrastre en fondos blandos de la plataforma y del talud continental del norte del Mar de Alborán

Abstract

Crustacean assemblages of continental shelf and slope soft bottoms of the northen Alboran Sea, between 30 and 800 m depth, were studied. The samples were collected in 279 hauls during five MEDITS annual bottom trawl surveys carried between 2012 and 2016. A total of 95 species, grouped in 46 families, most of them decapods, was captured. Plesionika heterocarpus was the most abundant species and Dardanus arrosor was the most frequent one. The three main assemblages were mainly related to depth: I) 30-200 m (Shelf assemblage), II) 201-500 m (Upper-slope assemblage) and III) 501-800 m (Middle-slope assemblage). Dardanus arrosor and Liocarcinus depurator characterized the shelf assemblage. Plesionika heterocarpus, Solenocera membranacea and Parapaneus longirostris, characterized the upper-slope assemblage whereas Plesionika martia, Plesionika acanthonotus and Pagurus alatus characterized the middle-slope assemblage. Crustacean abundance decreased with depth, but Species richness, Shannon-Wiener index and Evenness index increased with depth