Oceanic rafting by a coastal community

Oceanic rafting is thought to play a fundamental role in assembling the biological communities of isolated coastal ecosystems. Direct observations of this key ecological and evolutionary process are, however, critically lacking. The importance of macroalgal rafting as a dispersal mechanism has remai...

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Main Authors: Fraser, Ceridwen, Nikula, Raisa, Waters, Jonathan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Royal Society of London 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78499
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spelling ftanucanberra:oai:digitalcollections.anu.edu.au:1885/78499 2023-05-15T18:20:03+02:00 Oceanic rafting by a coastal community Fraser, Ceridwen Nikula, Raisa Waters, Jonathan 2015-12-13T22:41:25Z http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78499 unknown Royal Society of London 0962-8452 http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78499 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences Journal article 2015 ftanucanberra 2015-12-21T23:51:28Z Oceanic rafting is thought to play a fundamental role in assembling the biological communities of isolated coastal ecosystems. Direct observations of this key ecological and evolutionary process are, however, critically lacking. The importance of macroalgal rafting as a dispersal mechanism has remained uncertain, largely owing to lack of knowledge about the capacity of fauna to survive long voyages at sea and successfully make landfall and establish. Here, we directly document the rafting of a diverse assemblage of intertidal organisms across several hundred kilometres of open ocean, from the subantarctic to mainland New Zealand. Multispecies analyses using phylogeographic and ecological data indicate that 10 epifaunal invertebrate species rafted on six large bull kelp specimens for several weeks from the subantarctic Auckland and/or Snares Islands to the Otago coast of New Zealand, a minimum distance of some 400-600 km. These genetic data are the first to demonstrate that passive rafting can enable simultaneous trans-oceanic transport and landfall of numerous coastal taxa. Article in Journal/Newspaper Snares Islands Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections New Zealand
institution Open Polar
collection Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections
op_collection_id ftanucanberra
language unknown
description Oceanic rafting is thought to play a fundamental role in assembling the biological communities of isolated coastal ecosystems. Direct observations of this key ecological and evolutionary process are, however, critically lacking. The importance of macroalgal rafting as a dispersal mechanism has remained uncertain, largely owing to lack of knowledge about the capacity of fauna to survive long voyages at sea and successfully make landfall and establish. Here, we directly document the rafting of a diverse assemblage of intertidal organisms across several hundred kilometres of open ocean, from the subantarctic to mainland New Zealand. Multispecies analyses using phylogeographic and ecological data indicate that 10 epifaunal invertebrate species rafted on six large bull kelp specimens for several weeks from the subantarctic Auckland and/or Snares Islands to the Otago coast of New Zealand, a minimum distance of some 400-600 km. These genetic data are the first to demonstrate that passive rafting can enable simultaneous trans-oceanic transport and landfall of numerous coastal taxa.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Fraser, Ceridwen
Nikula, Raisa
Waters, Jonathan
spellingShingle Fraser, Ceridwen
Nikula, Raisa
Waters, Jonathan
Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
author_facet Fraser, Ceridwen
Nikula, Raisa
Waters, Jonathan
author_sort Fraser, Ceridwen
title Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
title_short Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
title_full Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
title_fullStr Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
title_full_unstemmed Oceanic rafting by a coastal community
title_sort oceanic rafting by a coastal community
publisher Royal Society of London
publishDate 2015
url http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78499
geographic New Zealand
geographic_facet New Zealand
genre Snares Islands
genre_facet Snares Islands
op_source Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences
op_relation 0962-8452
http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78499
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