Inventory of benthic amphipods from fine sand community of the Iberian Peninsula east coast (Spain), western Mediterranean, with new records

Abstract

Recent sampling surveys (2004–2008) of the shallow (12–20 m) soft-bottom homogeneous fine-sand community have allowed the collection of 55 marine amphipod species (53 Gammaridea and 2 Caprellidea) along the 250 km of Iberian Peninsula east coast (Spain, Mediterranean Sea). Among the species recorded, one recently described is new to science, five were collected for the first time in the Spanish Mediterranean and 14 were recorded for a second time confirming their presence. Of these 20 species; six are considered to be endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, seven are also north-eastern Atlantic species, and the last seven have a wide geographical distribution in the Indo-Pacific or Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans. Finally, multivariate analyses of species distribution showed changes among locations according to the north–south axis and depth, parameters that highly influence the benthic communities.