Molecular biodiversity of benthic communities in deep-sea sediments examples from the phylum Foraminifera and Nematoda

Abstract

Biodiversity in deep-sea environments is very high but often under-estimated to a large extent due to paucity in sampling and taxonomic intractability of certain faunal groups. In deep-sea benthic environments, two faunal groups namely Foraminifera and Nematoda often dominate in their abundance and contribute to major ecosystem processes. However, information at the species level and biogeographic patterns of these two major benthic faunal groups are largely unknown with some scattered studies undertaken so far based on the application of molecular techniques. This review highlights how application of molecular techniques, including next generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies have improved our understanding of biodiversity patterns of two major groups, namely Foraminifera and Nematoda from deep-sea benthic

habitats.