Abstract
Bathymetric patterns of macrofaunal species diversity are best documented in the western North Atlantic where diversity is a unimodal function of depth, peaking in the mid‐bathyal zone and being depressed in the upper slope and abyss. There are few inter‐basin studies of diversity‐depth trends that are controlled for taxonomy, sampling gear, and diversity measures. In this paper, we compare gastropod diversity gradients in the North American Basin of the Atlantic to estimates of diversity in 9 other regions: the Norwegian Sea, West European Basin, Guiana Basin, Gambia Basin, Equatorial Mid‐Atlantic, Brazil Basin, Angola Basin, Cape Basin and Argentine Basin. All samples were collected with epibenthic sleds, and diversity calculated by the Sanders‐Hurlbert normalized expected number of species. While sampling in other regions is generally less complete than in the western North Atlantic, results indicate that a unimodal pattern is not universal. Diversity can increase, decrease or show no relationship with depth. The level of diversity also varies among basins relative to the western North Atlantic, being depressed in the Norwegian Sea, at bathyal depths in the eastern North Atlantic, and below an oxygen minimum zone in the Cape Basin, and generally elevated at tropical latitudes and in abyssal regions where food supply is high. Associations between gastropod diversity and the ecology and geology of basins suggest that productivity, oxygen concentration, hydrographic disturbance and evolutionary‐historical processes may be implicated in shaping bathymetric diversity gradients, but specific causes are difficult to discern. Much more intensive sampling, analyses of other major taxa, and more detailed ecological data are necessary to understand deep‐sea biogeography at within‐ and between‐basin spatial scales.