Abstract:
Description and evaluation of the role of biodiversity of the macrobenthos, in particular of the peracarid crustaceans, in the structure and functioning of the Antarctic coastal and shelf ecosystem. In the Southern Ocean, the peracarid crustaceans represents the most speciose vagile macrobenthic group and probably the more diversified in terms of habitats, trophic types and size spectra and the key-ecosystem is recognized like the most complex, most productive and probably most sensitive to global environmental changes.
