A Possible Biomass Contribution to Fauna of Finike Seamounts by Terrestrial Insects

Abstract

Although insects are defined as terrestrial organisms, they can occasionally be encountered in samples taken from the sea. What makes it special in our study is that terrestrial insects were caught from the open sea while sampling the planktons. As a result of our study, insect samples were collected from 8 different stations by using the plankton traps. These specimens found in the fauna of Finike Seamounts were not aquatic insects but terrestrial and were considered specimens that accidentally drifted away into the sea. This causes us to evaluate the possibility that they may have the potential to make a biomass contribution to the marine ecosystem. Further investigation of the subject and revealing possible insect biomass contributions in the sea constitute an important horizon for future studies.

Keywords

• Marine insects
• Diptera
• Homoptera
• Biodiversity
• Finike
• SEPA
• Plankton trap

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