ИСТИНА

Great Meteor is a giant seamont rising from seabed at about 4500 m to a summit plateau of square 1450 km2 at average depth 287 m below sea level. Great Meteor is located at ~30ºN and at 1600 m from the nearest continental coast.The plateau of the Great Meteor Seamount is an isolated «sublittoral habitat»covered with biogeniccoarse calcareous sand consisted largely of shells of planctonic foraminiferans and pteropod gastropods. Meiofauna was sampled during the GroMet expedition (RV Poseidon) in 2010. Nematofauna is very rich, it is represented by about 75 species belonging to 51 genera and 32 families. Dominant family is Selachinematidae, they follow by Comesomatidae, Desmodoridae, Ceramonematidae, Thoracostomopsidae and Neotonchidae. A peculiar feature of the assemblages is high percentage of predatory families Selachinematidae (mostly Latronema). Another peculiar feature is high percentage and diversity of Ceramonematidae. Most Great Meteor species are presented by probably new species belonging to genera common in shallow coarse sediments. Typical deepsea genera such as Acantholaimus and Manganonema are also present but their percentage is low. The study is supported by Russian Fund of Fundamental Researches, grant N 15-04-02597.