Population differentiation decreases with depth in deep-sea gastropods

Abstract

The evolutionary processes that have generated the rich and highly endemic deep-sea benthic invertebrate fauna remain largely unstudied. Patterns of geographic variation constitute the most basic and essential information for understanding speciation and adaptive radiation. Here we present a multivariate analysis of phenotypic distance to quantify geographic variation in shell form among populations of eight deep-sea gastropod species distributed along a depth gradient in the western North Atlantic. Our primary aim is to identify regions within the deep sea that may promote population differentiation. The degree of interpopulation divergence is highest at the shelf-slope transition (200 m), and then decreases dramatically with increasing depth across the bathyal region (200–4000 m) to the abyssal plain (>4000 m). Phenotypic change parallels faunal change along the depth gradient, suggesting that the selective regime becomes more uniform with increasing depth. Results indicate that the potential for gastropod radiation within the deep-sea environment (>200 m) varies geographically and is highest in the narrow upper bathyal region.