The dataset of free-living marine nematodes of San Antonio Bay is based on sediment samples collected in February 2009 during doctoral theses funded by CONICET grants. A total of 36 samples has been taken at three locations in the San Antonio Bay, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina on the coastal littoral at three tidal levels. This presents a unique and important collection for benthic biodiversity assessment of Patagonian nematodes as this area remains one of the least known regions. In total 7,743 specimens of free-living marine nematodes belonging to two classes, eight orders, 37 families, 94 genera and 104 species were collected.

Nematoda , Enoplea , Chromadorea , South Atlantic

This is the first study on nematodes performed on a sub-Antarctic salt marsh along the coast of Río Negro Province, Argentina. This site has a high biodiversity and was declared a Protected Natural Area N°2.670 of the province of Río Negro in 1993 as well as an international reserve of the hemispheric network of Shorebird Reserve within the Wetlands program for the Americas. However, it is also an urban center where economic, industrial and tourist activities take place. The objectives of the study were to collect, identify and discover the structure and diversity of the nematode community of San Antonio Bay. The coverage (Figure 1) of this dataset includes two classes: Chromadorea (76%) and Enoplea (24%); eight orders: Monhysterida (39%), followed by Enoplida (23%) and Chromadorida (19%) as main occurrences; and thirty-seven families (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. 

Taxonomic coverage by class, order and family.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Nematoda

Class: Chromadorea, Enoplea

Order: Monhysterida, Enoplida, Chromadorida, Desmodorida, Araeolaimida, Plectida, Rhabditida, Dorylaimida.

Family: Xyalidae, Linhomoeidae, Monhysteridae, Sphaerolaimidae, Siphonolaimidae, Chromadoridae, Cyatholaimidae, Ethmolaimidae, Selachinematidae, Microlaimidae, Desmodoridae, Monoposthiidae, Coninckiidae, Comesomatidae, Diplopeltidae, Axonolaimidae, Leptolaimidae, Aegialoalaimidae, Haliplectidae, Ceramonematidae, Tarvaiidae, Tylenchidae, Mesorhabditidae, Criconematidae, Panagrolaimidae, Oncholaimidae, Oxystominidae, Ironoidae, Thoracostomopsidae, Tripyloididae, Anticomidae, Anoplostomatidae, Enchelidiidae, Trefusiidae, Lauratonematidae, Enoplidae, Dorylaimidae.

Genera: Odontophora, Synodontium, Comesoma, Metasabatieria, Sabatieria, Coninckia, Campylaimus, Diplopeltula, Chromadora, Chromadorella, Chromadorina, Prochromadorella, Actinonema, Rhips, Dichromadora, Neochromadora, Spilophorella, Marylynnia, Paracantonchus, Paracyatholaimus, Pomponema, Paraethmolaimus, Gammanema, Halichoanolaimus, Latronema, Molgolaimus, Metachromadora, Onyx, Polysigma, Spirinia, Bolbolaimus, Microlaimus, Nudora, Desmolaimus, Metalinhomoeus, Terschellingia, Eleutherolaimus, Paralinhomoeus, Siphonolaimus, Diplolaimella, Diplolaimelloides, Halomonhystera, Monhystera, Sphaerolaimus, Amphimonhystera, Cobbia, Daptonema, Gonionchus, Linhystera, Metadesmolaimus, Omicronema, Paramonohystera, Promonhystera, Pseudosteineria, Rhynchonema, Theristus, Xyalidae gen.1, Ceramonema, Pselionema, Tarvaia, Haliplectus, Cyartonema, Deontolaimus, Leptolaimus, Mesorhabditis, Macroposthonia, Panagrolaimus, Tylenchus, Dorylaimus, Chaetonema, Cephalanticoma, Enoplus, Epacanthion, Oxyonchus, Thoracostomopsidae gen.1, Conilia, Dolicholaimus, Syringolaimus, Halalaimus, Calyptronema, Eurystomina, Abelbolla, Adoncholaimus, Viscosia, Metoncholaimus, Oncholaimus, Lauratonema, Rhabdocoma, Trefusia, Trefusiidae gen.1, Bathylaimus, Tripyloides.

Species with higher occurrences: Microlaimus globiceps, Paraethmolaimus dahli, Thalassomonhystera parva, Microlaimus decoratus, Diplolaimelloides oschei, Nudora crepidata, Viscosia macramphida, Chromadorina longispiculum, Diplolaimella gerlachi, Leptolaimus luridus.

General spatial coverage: San Antonio Bay, Río Negro Province, Argentina (Figure 2). For this study three sites were selected: “Ciudad” (A), located in the north of the bay; “Baliza Camino” (B), located off the mouth of the bay of San Antonio and “Banco Perdices” (C), located 12 km south of “Las Grutas”. At each sampling site, three tidal levels were chosen: upper-littoral, high tide, salt-marsh habitat (u); middle littoral, mean tide, un-vegetated habitat (m) and low littoral, low tide, un-vegetated habitat (l) (Figure 3).

Figure 2. 

Spatial coverage. San Antonio Bay, Argentina. Sites: A “Ciudad” B “Baliza Camino” C “Banco Perdices”. Levels = u, m, l..

Figure 3. 

San Antonio Bay, Argentina. Views from the sampling sites. A “Ciudad” B, C “Baliza Camino” D “Banco Perdices”.

Coordinates: “Ciudad”: Au = 40°43'40.2"S; 64°57'41.1"W; Am = 40°43'39.0"S; 64°57'41.6"W; Al = 40°43'39.0"S; 64°57'39.5"W. “Baliza Camino”: Bu = 40°42'59.9"S; 64°50'46.8"W; Bm = 40°43'05.8"S; 64°50'58.5"W; Bl = 40°43'11.6"S; 64°51'14,6"W. “Banco Perdices”: Cu = 40°47'00.8"S; 64°50'54.3"W; Cm = 40°47'05.6"S; 64°51'17.8"W; Cl = 40°46'51.9"S; 64°51'02.8"W.

12–14 February 2009.

Sampling description: At each site and level location, four replicates (20 ml) were sampled with a PVC syringe (60 ml, inner diameter 2.9 cm) and separated by a distance of 5–10 m each: four for marine nematodes counts, two for organic matter and two for sediment analyses. Each sample was fixed in situ, with a solution of 5% formaldehyde in filtered sea water with the addition of Rose Bengal tint. Marine nematodes were extracted from samples using the elutriation/decantation LUDOX TM (colloidal silica polymer) method at a specific gravity of 1.15, quantifying only organisms passing through a 500 µm mesh and then retained by a 63 µm mesh. Samples were evaporated to anhydrous glycerol and permanent slides made (Somerfield and Warwick 1996). The taxonomic classification followed proposed by De Ley and Blaxter (2004). For the identification of species international keys (Platt and Warwick 1983, Platt and Warwick 1988, Warwick et al. 1998, Lorenzen 1994, Abebe et al. 2006) and taxonomical papers (Pastor de Ward 1978, 1980, 1984a, b, c, d, e, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995a, b, 1996, 1998a, b, c, 1999, Pastor de Ward and Lo Russo 2009, Villares and Pastor de Ward 2012, Lo Russo et. al. 2012, Villares et al. 2013, Pastor de Ward et al. 2013, Lo Russo et. al. 2015) were used. Holotypes and paratypes are deposited in the Collection of Nematodes of the Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET), Chubut, Argentina recognized as National Service of Biological Data of Argentina and included in their web page from 2011 (http://www.gbif.org/dataset/06df03fc-8973-490c-af74-089fffae9e24; http://www.gbif.org/dataset/d592283b-b00e-4a39-9499-289842ccddf1).

Project title: “Comparación de comunidades de nematodos de marismas de San Antonio Oeste (río Negro) y San Julián (Sta. Cruz)”. [Comparison of nematode marsh communities of San Antonio Oeste (Río Negro) and San Julián (Sta. Cruz)]. Doctoral thesis Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Lo Russo 2012).

“Diversidad funcional y producción secundaria de las comunidades de nematodos de las marismas de San Antonio (Río Negro) y de la ría de San Julián (Santa Cruz)”. [Functional diversity and secondary production of nematode marsh communities of San Antonio (Río Negro) estuary and San Julián (Santa Cruz)”. Doctoral thesis Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Villares 2014).

Personnel: Catalina Pastor de Ward (Project Director, meio-benthos specialist), Virginia Lo Russo and Gabriela Villares (field work, nematodes identification, data collection and analysis), Viviana Milano (grant-holding student, data input), Lidia Miyashiro (Darwin core data input), Renato Mazzanti (software engineer, data base manager).

Study extent description: The San Antonio Bay marine nematodes is a dataset that gives new insights on the taxonomic and geographic distribution of south Atlantic marine nematodes, covering an under-explored region of the southern Atlantic coasts. This is the first study on marine nematodes in this site. This dataset presents species occurrences and species richness of the individual free-living marine nematodes present at three coastal areas (“Ciudad”, “Baliza Camino”, “Banco Perdices”) of the San Antonio Bay at three different tidal levels (upper, middle and low-littoral).

In total 7,443 specimens of free-living marine nematodes belonging to two classes, eight orders, 37 families, 94 genera and 140 species were collected.

Quality control description: The geo-referencing of all specimens were recorded using a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS (WGS84 Datum) with an accuracy of less than 10 m and with at least 5 satellites. The taxonomic identification of specimens, scientific names, and their current accurate spelling were verified by C. Pastor de Ward, a free-living marine nematode specialist. Other post-validation procedures (including geographic coordinate format, congruence between collection and identification dates, absence of ASCII anomalous characters) were checked using the Darwin Test software (http://www.gbif.es/darwin_test/Darwin_Test_in.php).

Object name: Darwin Core Archive free-living marine Nematodes from San Antonio Bay (Río Negro, Argentina).

Character encoding: UTF-8

Format name: Darwin Core Archive format

Format version: 1.0

Distribution: http://ipt.cenpat-conicet.gob.ar:8081/resource?r=sao2009#

Publication date of data: 2013-10-25

Language: English

Licenses of use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 License http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

External datasets

Object name: Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET)

Distribution: http://ipt.cenpat-conicet.gob.ar:8081/resource?r=sao2009#

Object name: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología de Argentina (Sistema Nacional de Datos Biológicos - SNDB)

Distribution: GBIF: http://www.gbif.org/dataset/d592283b-b00e-4a39-9499-289842ccddf1

Formatted: English (U.K.)

Field Code Changed

Metadata language: English

Date of metadata creation: 2014-08-27

Hierarchy level: Dataset

We are grateful to Sistema Nacional de Datos Biológicos (SNDB) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CENPAT-CONICET) for their financial support.