Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Page 87

DECAPODA NATANTIA (CRUSTACEA) í FØROYSKUM ØKI
93
Matz Berggren made collections and ob-
servations on shallow water shrimps in the
phytal zone among the Faroe islands in Au-
gust 1987, June 1988 and August 1991 to
study habitat choice of the species (Berg-
gren, 1994).
The BIOFAR and BIOFAR 2
investigations
The intention with the BIOFAR pro-
gramme »Investigations on the marine fau-
na of the Faroe Islands« was to study the in-
vertebrate fauna at depths deeper than 100
m to supplement and update information in
»The Zoology of the Faroes« (Sparck et al.,
1928-37; 1928-42; 1935-42; Spárck t and
Tuxen, 1928-71).
During the BIOFAR programme in the
years 1987-90 (some samples also taken in
991-93) (Nørrevang et al., 1994) roughly
600 localities were sampled, at depths from
20 to 2420 m, with 790 deployments of
sampling gear. The stations sampled at
depths shallower than 100 m were taken
when foul weather made sampling in open
water impossible. Information on the BIO-
IAR stations (date, position, depth, sam-
pling gear, mean bottom temperature and
its standard deviation, water mass or mix-
ture of water masses, maximum amplitude
of the total tidal current, and bottom type)
is given in Nørrevang et al. (1994). The
oceanographic data were originally calcu-
lated by H. Westerberg (see Westerberg,
1990).
Sorting and preliminary analyses of ma-
terial from stations shallower than 100 m
revealed a number of species never repor-
ted from the Faroes. To sample the marine
fauna from all habitats from the upper
splash zone down to 100 m depth a succes-
sor to the BIOFAR programme was needed.
The Faroese government and the Carlsberg
Foundation, Denmark, generously funded a
new 3-year programme called BIOFAR 2,
which started in 1995. Information on sta-
tions sampled during BIOFAR 2 can be ob-
tained from Kaldbak Marine Laboratory,
FO-180 Kaldbak, the Faroe Islands.
Material and results
The BIOFAR material was collected using
benthic samling gear (Nørrevang et al.,
1994). The epibenthic sampler collects ma-
terial only at the water/sediment interface
and is especially suited for hyperbenthic or-
ganisms (species often swimming in the
benthic boundary layer) like shrimps, while
the other (bottom trawl, detritus sledge,
dredges) may have caught specimens in the
water column. The BIOFAR 2 material so
far has been collected by intertidal hand-
sampling, diving and use of a light triangu-
lar dredge and a modified Ockelmann de-
tritus-sledge (Brattegard, 1973).
Decapoda Natantia from BIOFAR were
found in 59 samples taken by the epiben-
thic sampler (78 % of the epibenthic sam-
pler deployments), 22 (67 %) bottom trawl
samples, 90 (55 %) detritus sledge samples,
and 125 (49 %) dredge samples (triangu-
lar-, rectangular-, scallop-, and anchor-
dredge).
Fossá et al. (1992) concluded that in an
area of complex hydrography benthic
species can be grouped and classified ac-
cording to their distribution in the water
masses. Knowledge about the water masses