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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Royal Society of London
2015
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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 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections |
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ftanucanberra |
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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 |
_version_ |
1766197515467620352 |