Explore the vast range of titles available.

Long-term marine monitoring programmes have provided numerous quantitative data on the composition of North Sea benthic communities and their changes over time, including species introductions. Particularly in the German Bight, the rapid environmental and hydrographical changes are promoting the spreading (usually anthropogenically mediated) of neobiota, with more than 150 species being registered to date. During routine seafloor monitoring, grab samples taken on the subtidal sandbank of the Borkum Reef Ground revealed the presence of the polychaete Streptosyllis nunezi in different years, a species previously unreported in the southern North Sea. In this paper, these individuals are described morphologically and the population status is discussed. Our finding demonstrates the importance of intensive and regular environmental monitoring programmes for the assessment of regional biodiversity and its potential changes.

Among the polychaetes, the Syllidae comprise numerous species whose study over many years has benefitted from valuable revisions and descriptions of new species in Europe. This abundant literature proves very useful for revisiting the taxonomy and distribution of the Syllidae in the English Channel (EC), mainly as regards existing studies on coarse sediment communities in the eastern part of the Channel. This habitat is one of the most widespread in the EC and is known as favourable for the small polychaete fauna including Syllidae. A 2-year survey (winter and summer sampling periods) covering 19 stations, associated with the Branchiostoma lanceolatum coarse sand community offshore Dieppe-Le Tréport, led to the identification of 6537 individuals from 29 taxa including 27 species. Six fine sand stations were also sampled in which only 12 individuals were collected. Among these species, seven are new for the EC polychaete fauna and six others are observed for the first time in the eastern part of the EC. All the new species for the EC are warm temperate species previously only known south of the Bay of Biscay. The Syllidae list given in Dauvin et al. (2003) has been re-analysed and amended with our list and that of the Chausey Archipelago study (Olivier et al., 2012). To date, 91 Syllidae species have been recorded in the EC and are established mostly in coarse sediments.

During a benthic survey of a Marine Conservation Zone located on the Skerries Bank in the English Channel off the south-west coast of England, three specimens of Streptosyllis nunezi Faulwetter et al., 2008 were found. This is the second ever record of the species after its original description, and the first record from waters around the U.K. and a significant northerly range extension for a species previously only recorded from the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean Sea. A single simple ventral chaeta in each of the two posterior-most segments was discovered in this and two other species of Streptosyllis Webster & Benedict, 1884. The generic definition of Streptosyllis is emended to include this feature previously unknown for the genus, and an updated key to the Streptosyllis found in UK waters is provided.

Since 2007, the ArcticNet and CHOne programmes have allowed researchers, through oceanographic surveys on the ‘NGCC Amundsen’, to collect yearly benthic samples in the Canadian High Arctic. From the Beaufort Sea to the Bay of Baffin, more than 262 samples have been collected and analysed to provide essential data to explain patterns of biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Whereas common species are well known, other more rare species belonging to a few minute species groups, with debatable taxonomy, were set aside for further analyses. Focusing on Syllidae (Annelida, Polychaeta), we found and describe here Streptospinigera niuqtuut sp. nov. from muddy habitats of bathyal Arctic and continental slope beds of northern Atlantic coasts of United States between depths of 169 and 707 m. S. niuqtuut differs from congeneric species by unique dorsal simple chaetae of 1–5 chaetigers dorsally curved and distally rounded, with some sub-distal serration. This species may have frequently been reported from the region as Syllides longocirrata Ørsted 1845 but in fact are species of the genus Streptospinigera Kudenov 1983 . We also transfer Streptosyllis templadoi San Martín 1984 to this genus and provide herein a key for the identification of all species of the genus.

Issue Title: Advances in Polychaete Research The species composition and diversity of benthic meiofaunal communities inhabiting the fringing reef lagoon of Anse Forbans were studied during two field collections in the years 1999 and 2000. The Anse Forbans is a sandy beach, on the SE coast of Mahé, which shows a physical and biological zonation parallel to the shore. The meiofauna in the sediments of the zones was dominated by polychaetes, especially the Syllidae. Thirty-three different syllid species belonging to sixteen generic taxa were identified. Streptosyllis aequiseta Hartmann-Schröder, 1981, one of the most abundant species and widely distributed within the reef flat, is redescribed.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Living conditions for macrofauna on flood delta shoals are determined by surf, strong currents and sediment mobility. Thus, a unique assemblage of invertebrate species colonize these far off-shore, low intertidal flats. We here describe the macrobenthic fauna of emerging shoals in the Wadden Sea between the islands of Römö and Sylt. Besides ubiquitous macroinvertebrates of the intertidal zone and species which attain their main distribution in the subtidal zone, the flood delta shoals are characterized by organisms adapted to live in these highly unstable sediments, like the polychaetesSpio martinensis, Streptosyllis websteri, Magelona mirabilis, Psammodrilus balanoglossoides, the pericarid crustaceansCumopsis goodsiri, Tanaissus lilljeborgi, Bathyporeia sarsi and a few others. Average abundance (1440 m^sup -2^ of ind >1 mm) and biomass (12.9 g AFDW m^sup -2^) were low compared to other intertidal habitats in the Wadden Sea. Biomass was dominated by largesized individuals of the lugwormArenicola marina. The U-shaped burrows of these polychaetes were inhabited by high numbers ofUrothoe poseidonis. Maximum densities of these amphipods occurred in the deepest parts of the burrows. Sampling at approximately montly intervals revealed no apparent seasonality ofU. poseidonis abundance. Together with smallCapitella capitata, these amphipods constitute a deep-dwelling component of the macrofauna associated with lugworms, which is separated from all other macrofauna living at the sediment surface. As a response to rising sea level and increasing tidal ranges, we expect the unstable sandy shoals, inhabited by numerousSpio martinensis andUrothoe poseidonis, to expand within the Wadden Sea at the cost of stable sandy flats with abundant macrofauna.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]