Biogeographical and phylogeographical relationships of the bathyal ophiuroid fauna of the Macquarie Ridge, Southern Ocean

Abstract

There are relatively few studies examining the latitudinal distribution of polar, subantarctic and temperate faunas on the bathyal seafloor across the Southern Ocean. Here, we investigate the relationship between the subantarctic Macquarie Ridge and adjacent regions of Antarctica (including the Ross Sea) and temperate Australia and New Zealand at depths of 200–2,500 m. We study the fauna at two levels of classification (1) morpho-species (MSPs) accepted by taxonomists and (2) evolutionary significant units defined as reciprocally monophyletic clades derived from phylogenies of mitochondrial DNA. The ophiuroid fauna on the Macquarie Ridge has a predominantly temperate origin, with far more MSPs shared with south-eastern Australia (78 % of species) and southern New Zealand (83 %) than neighbouring Antarctic regions (33 %). However, this asymmetry also reflects the relative species richness of these regions. Many species that are shared between Antarctica and the Macquarie Ridge have diverged into distinct mtDNA lineages indicative of a recent barrier to gene flow.