Abstract
The Southwest Pacific represents an independent biogeographic province for deep-sea hydrothermal vent fauna. Different degrees of genetic connectivity among vent fields in Manus, North Fiji and Lau Basins have been reported for various molluscan and crustacean species, presumably reflecting their different levels of dispersal ability as swimming larvae. The present study investigates the population connectivity of the hydrothermal vent limpet Shinkailepas tollmanni (family Phenacolepadidae) in the Southwest Pacific. Our analyses using mitochondrial COI-gene sequences and shell morphometric traits suggest a panmictic population structure throughout its geographic and bathymetric ranges, spanning 4,000 km from the westernmost Manus Basin (151ºE; 1,300 m deep) to the easternmost Lau Basin (176ºE; 2,720 m). The measurements of its embryonic and larval shells demonstrate that the species hatches as a planktotrophic veliger larva with an embryonic shell diameter of 170–180 μm and settles at the vent environment with the larval shell diameter of 750–770 μm. This substantial growth as a feeding larva, ca. 80 times in volume, is comparable or even greater than those of confamilial species in the hydrothermal-vent and methane-seep environments in the Northwest Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Large pigmented eyes in newly settled juveniles are another common feature in this and other phenacolepadids inhabiting the chemosynthetic environments. These results put together suggest that the larvae of S. tollmanni migrate vertically from deep-sea vents to surface waters to take advantages of richer food supplies and faster currents and stay pelagic for an extended period of time (> 1 year), as previously indicated for the confamilial species.
Highlights
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents harbor unique invertebrate assemblages including mollusks, crustaceans and annelids with high biomass and endemism [1]
The present study investigates the population connectivity of S. tollmanni between Manus, North Fiji and Lau Basins for the better understanding of dispersal mechanisms of vent animals in the Southwest Pacific
The mitochondrial c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences obtained in this study indicated no genetic subdivision among the Manus, North Fiji and Lau populations of S. tollmanni (Table 2), either in the analyses of Dataset 1 (1,276 bp x 39 individuals; S1 File) or Dataset 2 (476 bp x 242 individuals; S2 File)
Summary
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents harbor unique invertebrate assemblages including mollusks, crustaceans and annelids with high biomass and endemism [1]. Population connectivity of a vent limpet in the Southwest Pacific. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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