Amphipoda species (Suborders: Amphilochidea and Senticaudata) from Vasiliko Bay, Cyprus: New records, information on their biogeography and an annotated checklist from the coasts of Cyprus

Current information on soft-bottom benthic amphipod species of the south coasts of Cyprus is scarce. In the summer of 2013, a research survey was carried out, targeting the Vasiliko Bay and the nearby coastal area which is influenced by multiple human-induced stressors. Analysis of 126 samples revealed the presence of 2,122 individual amphipods (Amphilochidea and Senticaudata) belonging to 25 families and 52 species. Twenty-four species are new records for Cyprus increasing the number of amphipods to 141 species. In Vasiliko Bay, two amphipod species presented the highest abundances and were found to be constant (Microdeutopus periergos, Perioculodes longimanus), while seven are common species (Ampelisca brevicornis, Ampelisca typica, Apherusa chiereghinii, Dexamine spinosa, Harpinia crenulata, Leptocheirus pectinatus, Leucothoe incisa) and the remaining 43 species are rare. The highest amphipod total abundances and number of species were recorded in stations with dense Posidonia oceanica meadows and aquaculture units in the vicinity. Brief distributional and ecological characteristics of the identified amphipod species are given and an annotated checklist for the coasts of Cyprus is provided.

Biodiversity and the biogeographic relationships of the Amphipoda: Gammaridea on the French coastline

A recent inventory of the benthic Gammaridea: Amphipoda species on the French continental coastline catalogued 495 species. An analysis of the biodiversity and the biogeographic relationships that exist between the French Amphipoda: Gammaridea, living on the coastline that extends along 10° latitude range in the temperate region between 41° and 51° North and the other gammaridean faunas living in the north-eastern Atlantic has drawn the pattern of diversity in this marine invertebrate group on a large biogeographical scale. Gammaridean amphipods exhibit a latitudinal gradient over the total number of species, including the continental shelf species and the bathyal species. There are four main fauna groups, which correspond to the biogeographical zones of the north-eastern Atlantic: (1) a cold arctic and cool-temperate Svalbard and Norwegian coastal fauna; (2) a cool-temperate boreal and Boreal–Lusitanian United Kingdom, Irish and English Channel shallow fauna; (3) a warm-temperate Lusitanian Bay of Biscay and subtropical central Atlantic fauna; and (4) a subtropical Mediterranean fauna. The French fauna appears particularly rich, presenting 44% of the 1119 species recorded in the north-eastern Atlantic along the 50° latitude range (30°N–80°N). This is obviously due to France's intermediate latitudinal location within the Lusitanian temperate biogeographical zone, which produces a biogeographical cross between the boreal fauna in the north and the warm temperate and sub-tropical fauna in the south.