Abstract
The Antarctic marine environment is a diverse ecosystem currently experiencing some of the fastest rates of climatic change. The documentation and management of these changes requires accurate estimates of species diversity. Recently, there has been an increased recognition of the abundance and importance of cryptic species, i.e. those that are morphologically identical but genetically distinct. This article presents the largest genetic investigation into the prevalence of cryptic polychaete species within the deep Antarctic benthos to date. We uncover cryptic diversity in 50% of the 15 morphospecies targeted through the comparison of mitochondrial DNA sequences, as well as 10 previously overlooked morphospecies, increasing the total species richness in the sample by 233%. Our ability to describe universal rules for the detection of cryptic species within polychaetes, or normalization to expected number of species based on genetic data is prevented by taxon-specific differences in phylogenetic outputs and genetic variation between and within potential cryptic species. These data provide the foundation for biogeographic and functional analysis that will provide insight into the drivers of species diversity and its role in ecosystem function.
Highlights
Antarctica is a fragile environment currently undergoing some of the fastest rates of climatic change on the planet [1,2].2016 The Authors
The phylogenetic results followed one of four scenarios: (1) evidence of cryptic species based on coherent COI and 16S phylogenies or if COI was not sequenced just 16S data, e.g. Scalibregma inflatum; (2) evidence of cryptic species in the COI phylogeny but not 16S, e.g. Hesionidae sp
A; (3) undetermined clades from 16S analysis, in this case we were unable to distinguish between the presence of potential cryptic species or high intraspecific variation within a species complex, e.g. Lumbrineris kerguelensis-cingulata; (4) no evidence of cryptic species, e.g. Laonice weddellia
Summary
Antarctica is a fragile environment currently undergoing some of the fastest rates of climatic change on the planet [1,2].2016 The Authors. Document and manage the impact of environmental change our knowledge of species diversity needs to be improved. For these reasons there has been an increased effort to accurately document and assess current species diversity within Antarctic waters. Aq) and the Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar: http://www.coml.org/projects/ census-diversity-abyssal-marine-life-cedamar) campaigns [5]. This project led to substantial systematic investigations into the biodiversity and biogeography of marine animals within the Southern Ocean and Antarctic Islands using both traditional and molecular methods of species identification. The number of Antarctic DNA barcodes is rising, increasing from 432 to 20 355 between 2009 and 2011 [7], the majority of these sequences originate from Molluscan and Crustacean species collected from the Weddell Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula
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