Antarctic benthic communities are isolated from the ecosystems sussounding the Southern Ocean by the abyssal plain, circumpolar currents, and very low temperatures, which make immigration by exotic species difficult, and particularly by the Polar Front, which blocks dispersal of endemic species. These limiting factors characterize the Antarctic benthic subsystem and Set it off from other geographic regions. A multitude of questions remain to be answered, even though a number of studies have been cassied out to investigate the role of the Polar Front and the abyssal plains as geographical barriers (Dayton 1990) and the adaptation of organisms to the low-temperature regime (Clarke 1991). Another characteristic feature of the Antarctic benthic subsystem is an exceptionally marked level of seasonality in food availability in the water column. The consequence is that the benthic species may have to adapt to a possible scarcity of food throughout the year, except in surnrner (Barnes and Clarke 1995), which contrasts with the constant nature of many other environmental factors. [...]

54 pages, 21 figures, 23 tables

Peer reviewed