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Conservation implications of spatial genetic structure in two species of oribatid mites from the Antarctic Peninsula and the Scotia Arc

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2018

Bettine Jansen van Vuuren*
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa
Jennifer E. Lee
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa Current address: Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Government House, Stanley, Falkland Islands
Peter Convey
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Steven L. Chown
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia

Abstract

Mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data from two Antarctic ameronothroid mites, Halozetes belgicae and Alaskozetes antarcticus, were used to address three key questions important for understanding both the evolution of biodiversity and its future conservation in the Antarctic Peninsula Region: i) Do populations of mites across the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc constitute distinct genetic lineages? ii) What implications does the spatial genetic structure in these species have for current understanding of the region’s glacial history? iii) What are the conservation implications of these findings? Our results indicate that both mite species have been present in the Antarctic since at least the Pliocene. At the regional scale, both species are comprised of a number of divergent, but sympatric, lineages that are genetically as distinct as some species within the genera Halozetes and Alaskozetes. At the local scale, complex structure suggests limited and stochastic post-Holocene dispersal. For both species, considerable spatial genetic structure exists across the region, similar to that found in other terrestrial invertebrates. These results support the implementation of stringent biosecurity measures for moving between the Scotia Arc islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, and throughout the latter, to conserve both evolutionary history and future evolutionary trajectories.

Type
Biological Sciences
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2018 

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