Deep-sea ecosystems occupy more than 60% of our planet. The systematic study of the inhabitants of oceanic depths began only in the second half of the 20th century. The appearance of the technical capabilities for the study of the depths of the oceans and increase researchers' attention to these ecosystems have led to a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications. It is shown that the most abundant group of multicellular organisms in benthic communities from oceanic depths are free-living nematodes, sometimes constituting more than 90% population metazoan benthos (Mokievsky et al., 2007). Despite their dominance, the composition of deep-sea nematode assemblages is still scarcely studied, and the North-Western Pacific is one of the least studied regions (Miljutin et al., 2010). There are only three papers on inventory of the biodiversity of deep-sea nematofauna, and a small number of studies of nematodes communities are limited to works at the genus level or "working species." The aim of the present work is to study the deep-sea nematode diversity from some areas in the NW Pacific.
References
Miljutin D.M., Gad G., Miljutina M.M., Mokievsky V.O., Fonseca-Genovis V., Esteves A.M., 2010. The state of knowledge on deep-sea nematode taxonomy: how many valid species are known down there? Mar. Biodiv. 40: 143-159.
Mokievsky V.O., Udalov A.A., Azovsky A.I., 2007. Quantitative distribution of meiobenthos in deep-water zones of the World Ocean // Oceanology 47(6): 797–813.