Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica)
The marine waters around the South Shetland Islands are paramount in the primary production of this Antarctic ecosystem. With the increasing effects of climate change and the annual retreat of the ice shelf, the importance of macroalgae and their diatom epiphytes in primary production also increases...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 2024-05-19T07:32:21+00:00 Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea M. Martín-Martín, Rafael P. Kloster, Michael Angulo-Preckler, Carlos Avila, Conxita Beszteri, Bánk Hewitt, Judi Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 4, page e0250629 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2021 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 2024-05-01T06:58:50Z The marine waters around the South Shetland Islands are paramount in the primary production of this Antarctic ecosystem. With the increasing effects of climate change and the annual retreat of the ice shelf, the importance of macroalgae and their diatom epiphytes in primary production also increases. The relationships and interactions between these organisms have scarcely been studied in Antarctica, and even less in the volcanic ecosystem of Deception Island, which can be seen as a natural proxy of climate change in Antarctica because of its vulcanism, and the open marine system of Livingston Island. In this study we investigated the composition of the diatom communities in the context of their macroalgal hosts and different environmental factors. We used a non-acidic method for diatom digestion, followed by slidescanning and diatom identification by manual annotation through a web-browser-based image annotation platform. Epiphytic diatom species richness was higher on Deception Island as a whole, whereas individual macroalgal specimens harboured richer diatom assemblages on Livingston Island. We hypothesize this a possible result of a higher diversity of ecological niches in the unique volcanic environment of Deception Island. Overall, our study revealed higher species richness and diversity than previous studies of macroalgae-inhabiting diatoms in Antarctica, which could however be the result of the different preparation methodologies used in the different studies, rather than an indication of a higher species richness on Deception Island and Livingston Island than other Antarctic localities. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Deception Island Ice Shelf Livingston Island South Shetland Islands PLOS PLOS ONE 16 4 e0250629 |
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Open Polar |
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language |
English |
description |
The marine waters around the South Shetland Islands are paramount in the primary production of this Antarctic ecosystem. With the increasing effects of climate change and the annual retreat of the ice shelf, the importance of macroalgae and their diatom epiphytes in primary production also increases. The relationships and interactions between these organisms have scarcely been studied in Antarctica, and even less in the volcanic ecosystem of Deception Island, which can be seen as a natural proxy of climate change in Antarctica because of its vulcanism, and the open marine system of Livingston Island. In this study we investigated the composition of the diatom communities in the context of their macroalgal hosts and different environmental factors. We used a non-acidic method for diatom digestion, followed by slidescanning and diatom identification by manual annotation through a web-browser-based image annotation platform. Epiphytic diatom species richness was higher on Deception Island as a whole, whereas individual macroalgal specimens harboured richer diatom assemblages on Livingston Island. We hypothesize this a possible result of a higher diversity of ecological niches in the unique volcanic environment of Deception Island. Overall, our study revealed higher species richness and diversity than previous studies of macroalgae-inhabiting diatoms in Antarctica, which could however be the result of the different preparation methodologies used in the different studies, rather than an indication of a higher species richness on Deception Island and Livingston Island than other Antarctic localities. |
author2 |
Hewitt, Judi Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea M. Martín-Martín, Rafael P. Kloster, Michael Angulo-Preckler, Carlos Avila, Conxita Beszteri, Bánk |
spellingShingle |
Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea M. Martín-Martín, Rafael P. Kloster, Michael Angulo-Preckler, Carlos Avila, Conxita Beszteri, Bánk Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
author_facet |
Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea M. Martín-Martín, Rafael P. Kloster, Michael Angulo-Preckler, Carlos Avila, Conxita Beszteri, Bánk |
author_sort |
Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea M. |
title |
Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
title_short |
Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
title_full |
Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
title_fullStr |
Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) |
title_sort |
epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the south shetland islands (antarctica) |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Deception Island Ice Shelf Livingston Island South Shetland Islands |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Deception Island Ice Shelf Livingston Island South Shetland Islands |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 4, page e0250629 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250629 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
e0250629 |
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1799470367818907648 |