The Prince Gustav Channel is a narrow seaway located in the western Weddell Sea on the northeastern-most tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The channel is notable for both its deep (>1200 m) basins, and a dynamic glacial history that most recently includes the break-up of the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf, which covered the southern portion of the channel until its collapse in 1995. However, the channel remains mostly unsampled, with very little known about its benthic biology. We present a preliminary account of the benthic annelid fauna of the Prince Gustav Channel in addition to samples from Duse Bay, a sheltered, glacier-influenced embayment in the northwestern portion of the channel. Samples were collected using an Agassiz Trawl, targeting megafaunal and large macrofaunal sized animals at depths ranging between 200–1200 m; the seafloor and associated fauna were also documented in situ using a Shallow Underwater Camera System (SUCS). Sample sites varied in terms of depth, substrate type, and current regime, and communities were locally variable across sites in terms of richness, abundance, and both taxonomic and functional composition. The most diverse family included the motile predator/scavenger Polynoidae, with 105 individuals in at least 12 morphospecies, primarily from a single site. This study provides first insights into diverse and spatially heterogeneous benthic communities in a dynamic habitat with continuing glacial influence, filling sampling gaps in a poorly studied region of the Southern Ocean at direct risk from climate change. These specimens will also be utilized in future molecular investigations, both in terms of describing the genetic biodiversity of this site and as part of wider phylogeographic and population genetic analyses assessing the connectivity, evolutionary origins, and demographic history of annelid fauna in the region.

中文翻译：

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古斯塔夫王子海峡的安妮利德动物群，南极半岛东北部以前被冰覆盖的海道

古斯塔夫王子海峡是一条狭窄的海道，位于南极半岛最东北端的威德尔海西部。该海峡以其深 (>1200 m) 盆地和动态冰川历史而著称，最近包括古斯塔夫王子冰架的破裂，该冰架覆盖了海峡的南部直到 1995 年坍塌。 然而，该通道仍然大部分未采样，对其底栖生物学知之甚少。我们对古斯塔夫王子海峡的底栖环节动物群进行了初步说明，此外还提供了来自杜斯湾的样本，杜斯湾是海峡西北部受冰川影响的隐蔽海湾。使用 Agassiz Trawl 收集样品，以 200-1200 m 深度范围内的巨型动物和大型大型动物为目标；海底和相关动物群也使用浅水水下相机系统 (SUCS) 进行了原位记录。样本点在深度、基质类型和当前状况方面各不相同，并且群落在丰富度、丰度以及分类和功能组成方面因站点而异。最多样化的家族包括能动的捕食者/清道夫 Polynoidae，有 105 个人，至少有 12 个形态种，主要来自一个地点。这项研究提供了对具有持续冰川影响的动态栖息地中多样化和空间异质的底栖群落的初步见解，填补了南大洋一个受到气候变化直接风险的研究不足的地区的采样空白。这些标本也将用于未来的分子研究，