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Institution, had collected 148 species, put them on slides, drawn them and
incorporated them into the collections of the Smithsonian. Another
collection had been made on the eastern side of the CCFZ around 1985-87.
A taxonomic study from the DISCOL (Disturbance Recolonization) site by
Christian Bussau had not been published but was available as a doctoral
thesis 25 , and the collection was at the Senckenberg Museum (Frankfurt am
Main, Germany). Comparing these collections to the recent one should
provide valuable insights into species ranges.
On nematode abundance, Lambshead cited data showing about 0.1
million nematodes per square metre on the central Pacific abyssal plain.
This was an impoverished area compared to the North Atlantic, where the
Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) recorded a count three times higher. The
Indian Ocean sites that had been studied were actually in the Arabian Sea,
from an oxygen-minimum zone rich in food. Their figures of 0.9 and 0.5
nematodes/m 2 were proof that this unusual environment was nothing like
the Indian mining zone, and he doubted that they would be useful for the
Central Indian Ocean claim area.
Although no one knew how many species of nematodes there were,
it was not difficult to estimate the number of individuals. According to his
calculation, free-living nematodes numbered about 10 19 .
Nematode abundance seemed to be controlled by food. It did not
correlate well with particulate organic carbon (POC) because nematodes fed
in the sediments, not on the surface. He cited calculations done with Adam
Cook, his doctoral student, on data from the Arabian Sea 26 . Using a
hydrogen index, employed by biochemists to measure food quality in the
sediment, they had found a correlation of 98.9%, the best he had ever
obtained on a data set. Looking at a graph of the data, one could not tell
which of its points referred to the low-oxygen-minimum zone because, from
the standpoint of abundance, the nematodes did not care that there was no
oxygen.
The big problem was the taxonomy of the group. Out of 4000
described species, about 2000 descriptions were so old and so bad that
one could not be sure of ever finding the species again. There were virtually
no types because it had been traditional with these small animals to throw
the types away.
As to estimates of species numbers, there had been a row with the
terrestrial nematologists a couple of years ago about whether the oceans or
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