Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:04:59.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spatial patterns of benthic diversity in molluscs from West Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2009

Cristian Aldea ,
Celia Olabarria  and
Jesús S. Troncoso
Cristian Aldea*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Campus Lagoas Marcosende, 36310, Universidad de Vigo, Spain Fundación Centro de Estudios del Cuaternario de Fuego-Patagonia y Antártica (CEQUA), Av. Bulnes 01890, Punta Arenas, Chile
Celia Olabarria
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Campus Lagoas Marcosende, 36310, Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Jesús S. Troncoso
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Campus Lagoas Marcosende, 36310, Universidad de Vigo, Spain
*
*[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite several works that have documented patterns of diversity in deep sea organisms, trends of diversity and the processes responsible for such trends still remain unclear. To date very few studies have documented the effects of variables such as latitude and longitude in deep-sea organisms in the Antarctic region. We explored the spatial patterns of diversity of benthic gastropods and bivalves in an extensive region about 2200 km long and 500 km wide from the South Shetland Islands to the Bellingshausen Sea in West Antarctica. A total of 134 species from 54 sites was recorded. Alpha diversity and beta diversity (measured as Whittaker’s and Bray-Curtis similarity indices) were highly variable among areas. None of the species richness estimators measured as Sobs, Chao2, Jacknife1 and Jacknife2, stabilized towards asymptotic values in any area. The number of rare species was large with almost half of species represented by 1 or 2 individuals (41%) and most species (62%) restricted to 1 or 2 sites. The partial Mantel test revealed that similarity between sites increased with the decrease of depth differences, but not with horizontal separation.

Keywords

alphabeta and gamma diversityBellingshausen Seabivalvesgastropodsrare speciesSouth Shetland Islands
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , August 2009 , pp. 341 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldea, C., Olabarria, C. Troncoso, J.S. 2008. Bathymetric zonation and diversity gradient of gastropods and bivalves in West Antarctica from the South Shetland Islands to the Bellingshausen Sea. Deep-Sea Research I, 55, 350–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, M.J. Legendre, P. 1999. An empirical comparison of permutation methods for tests of partial regression coefficients in a linear model. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 62, 271–303.Google Scholar
Arnaud, P.M., Troncoso, J.S. Ramos, A. 2001. Species diversity and assemblages of macrobenthic Mollusca from the South Shetland Islands and Bransfield Strait (Antarctica). Polar Biology, 24, 105–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnet, E. Van de Peer, Y. 2002. Zt: a software tool for simple and partial Mantel tests. Journal of Statistical Software, 7 (10), 1–12.Google Scholar
Boucher, G. Lambshead, P.J.D. 1995. Ecological diversity of marine nematodes in samples from temperate, tropical, and deep sea regions. Conservation Biology, 9, 1594–1604.Google Scholar
Brandt, A. Hilbig, B. 2004. ANDEEP (ANtarctic benthic DEEP-sea biodiversity: colonization history and recent community patterns) - a tribute to Howard L. Sanders. Deep-Sea Research II, 51, 1457–1919.Google Scholar
Brandt, A., Ellingsen, K.E., Brix, S., Brökeland, W. Malyutina, M. 2005. Southern Ocean deep-sea isopod species richness (Crustacea, Malacostraca): influences of depth, latitude and longitude. Polar Biology, 28, 284–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, A., De Broyer, C., De Mesel, I., Ellingsen, K.E., Gooday, A.J., Hilbig, B., Linse, K., Thomson, M.R.A. Tyler, P.A. 2007. The biodiversity of the deep Southern Ocean benthos. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B362, 39–66.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H. 1984. On the relationship between abundance and distribution of species. American Naturalist, 124, 255–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cattaneo-Vietti, R., Chiantore, M., Schiaparelli, S. Albertelli, G. 2000. Shallow- and deep-water mollusc distribution at Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea, Antarctica). Polar Biology, 23, 173–182.Google Scholar
Clarke, A. Lidgard, S. 2000. Spatial patterns of diversity in the sea: bryozoan species richness in the North Atlantic. Journal of Animal Ecology, 69, 799–814.Google Scholar
Clarke, A., Griffiths, H.J., Linse, K., Barnes, D.K.A. Crame, J.A. 2007. How well do we know the Antarctic marine fauna? A preliminary study of macroecological and biogeographic patterns in Southern Ocean gastropod and bivalve molluscs. Diversity and Distributions, 13, 620–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. Ainsworth, M. 1993. A method of linking multivariate community structure to environmental variables. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 92, 205–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. Gorley, R. 2005. Primer-E version 6.0. Plymouth: NERC, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 91 pp.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. Warwick, R.M. 1994. Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. Plymouth: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 144 pp.Google Scholar
Colwell, R.K. 1997. EstimateS: statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples, version 5. User’s Guide and Application. University of Connecticut Storrs, CT: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/estimates.Google Scholar
Colwell, R.K. Coddington, J.A. 1994. Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B345, 101–118.Google Scholar
Ellingsen, K.E. 2001. Biodiversity of a continental shelf soft-sediment macrobenthos community. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 218, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellingsen, K.E. Gray, J.S. 2002. Spatial patterns of benthic diversity: is there a latitudinal gradient along the Norwegian continental shelf? Journal of Animal Ecology, 71, 373–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellingsen, K.E., Brandt, A., Ebbe, B. Linse, K. 2007. Diversity and species distribution of polychaetes, isopods and bivalves in the Atlantic sector of the deep Southern Ocean. Polar Biology, 30, 1265–1273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etter, R.J. Grassle, J.F. 1992. Patterns of species diversity in the deep sea as a function of sediment particle size. Nature, 360, 576–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, J.D. 2004. Diversity in the deep-sea benthic macrofauna: the importance of local ecology, the large-scale, history and the Antarctic. Deep-Sea Research II, 51, 1689–1709.Google Scholar
Gaston, K.J. 2000. Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature, 405, 220–227.Google Scholar
Gordon, A.L. Nowlin, W.D. 1978. The basin waters of the Bransfield Strait. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 8, 258–264.Google Scholar
Grassle, J.G. Maciolek, N.J. 1992. Deep-sea species richness: regional and local diversity estimated from quantitative bottom samples. American Naturalist, 139, 313–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. 1997. Marine biodiversity: patterns, threats and conservation needs. Biodiversity and Conservation, 6, 153–175.Google Scholar
Gray, J.S. 2000. The measurement of marine species diversity, with an application to the benthic fauna of the Norwegian continental shelf. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 250, 23–49.Google Scholar
Gutt, J. Piepenburg, D. 2003. Scale-dependent impact on diversity of Antarctic benthos caused by grounding of icebergs. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 253, 77–83.Google Scholar
Harper, J.L. Hawksworth, D.L. 1994. Biodiversity: measurement and estimation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B345, 5–12.Google Scholar
Huston, M.A. 1994. Biological diversity: the coexistence of species on changing landscapes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 702 pp.Google Scholar
Linse, K. 2004. Scotia Arc deep-water bivalves: composition, distribution and relationship to the Antarctic shelf fauna. Deep-Sea Research II, 51, 1827–1837.Google Scholar
Linse, K., Griffiths, H.J., Barnes, D.K.A. Clarke, A. 2006. Biodiversity and biogeography of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic mollusca. Deep-Sea Research II, 53, 985–1008.Google Scholar
Olabarria, C. 2005. Patterns of bathymetric zonation of bivalves in the Porcupine Seabight and adjacent abyssal plain, NE Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research I, 52, 15–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rex, M.A. 1981. Community structure in the deep-sea benthos. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 12, 331–353.Google Scholar
Rex, M.A., Etter, R.J. Stuart, C.T. 1997. Large-scale patterns of diversity in the deep-sea benthos. In Ormond, R.F.G., Gage, J.G., Angel, M.V., eds. Marine biodiversity: patterns and processes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 94–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rex, M.A., Stuart, C.T. Coyne, G. 2000. Latitudinal gradients of species richness in the deep-sea benthos of the North Atlantic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, 97, 4082–4085.Google Scholar
Rex, M.A., McClain, C.R., Johnson, N.A., Etter, R.J., Allen, J.A., Bouchet, P. Warén, A. 2005. A source-sink hypothesis for abyssal biodiversity. American Naturalist, 165, 163–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ricklefs, R.E. Schluter, D. 1993. Species diversity in ecological communities: historical and geographical perspectives. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 414 pp.Google Scholar
Schiaparelli, S., Lörz, A. Cattaneo-Vietti, R. 2006. Diversity and distribution of mollusc assemblages on the Victoria Land coast and the Balleny Islands, Ross Sea, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 18, 615–631.Google Scholar
Shin, P.K.S. Ellingsen, K.E. 2004. Spatial patterns of soft-sediment benthic diversity in subtropical Hong Kong waters. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 276, 25–35.Google Scholar
Stuart, C.T., Rex, M.A. Etter, R.J. 2003. Large-scale spatial and temporal patterns of deep-sea benthic species diversity. In Tyler, P.A., ed. Ecosystems of the deep oceans, 28. Ecosystems of the world. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 582 pp.Google Scholar
Troncoso, J.S. Aldea, C. 2008. Macrobenthic mollusc assemblages and diversity in the West Antarctica from the South Shetland Islands to the Bellingshausen Sea. Polar Biology, 31, 1253–1265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underwood, A.J., Chapman, M.G. Connell, S.D. 2000. Observations in ecology: you can’t make progress on processes without understanding the patterns. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 250, 97–115.Google Scholar
Warwick, R.M. Clarke, K.R. 1995. New ‘biodiversity’ measures reveal a decrease in taxonomic distinctness with increasing stress. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 129, 301–305.Google Scholar
Webb, S.L. Gaston, K.J. 2000. Geographic range size and evolutionary age in birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B267, 1843–1850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, R.H. 1960. Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs, 30, 279–338.Google Scholar