Diets of deep-water pandalid shrimps on the western Mediterranean slope

Abstract

In the Catalan Sea, Plesionika edwardsi, P. martia, and P. acanthonotus were active predators of macroplankton species. The diets of P. edwardsi and P. martia were quite similar and consisted primarily of benthopelagic eucarid crustaceans Pasiphaea sp., euphausiids). P. acanthonotus is smaller; its diet was based on smaller prey (siphonophores, hyperiids, euphausiids). Bathymetric distribution and abundance of pandalid shrimps along the slope were related to the influence of the mesopelagic fauna on bathyal communities, which is commonly accepted to decrease with depth. -from Author