A pioneer morphological and genetic study of the intertidal fauna of the Gerlache Strait (Antarctic Peninsula).

• Published in: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
• Main Authors: Jossart, Quentin, Bauman, David, Moreau, Camille V.E., Saucède, Thomas, Christiansen, Henrik, Brasier, Madeleine J., Convey, Peter, Downey, Rachel, Figuerola, Blanca, Martin, Patrick, Norenburg, Jon, Rosenfeld, Sebastian, Verheye, Marie, Danis, Bruno
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Biologie Marine (LBM), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Marine Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR), Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies Hobart (IMAS), University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia (UTAS), British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department of Zoology University of Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg South Africa (UJ), Millenium Institute Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University (ANU), Institute of Marine Sciences / Institut de Ciències del Mar Barcelona (ICM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas = Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Laboratorio de Ecosistemas Marinos Antárticos y Subantárticos, Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG), Centro de Investigación Gaia-Antártica, Laboratory of Trophic and Isotopes Ecology, Université de Liège, Tolerance in the Southern Ocean’ project (RECTO; BR/154/A1/RECTO) funded by the ‘Belgian Science Policy Office’ (BELSPO). This is contribution no. 28 to the RECTOproject. The B121 expedition was funded by the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), the Leopold 3Fund for the exploration and conservation of Nature and the Royal Belgian Society for Zoology. David Bauman was funded by the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreementNo. 895799. Henrik Christiansen was funded by the BELSPOproject COPE (B2/191/P1/COPE). Blanca Figuerola receivedfunding from the Beatriu de Pinós program (2019-BP-00183),funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Governmentof Catalonia) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreementNo. 801370. Peter Convey was supported by NERC core fundingto the BAS ‘Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation’ Team.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Benthic ecology; Community structure; DNA barcoding; Seashore; Southern Ocean; MESH: Animals; MESH: Ecosystem; MESH: Antarctic Regions; MESH: Environmental Monitoring; MESH: Biodiversity; MESH: Bivalvia; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Gerlache; Gerlache Strait; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://u-bourgogne.hal.science/hal-04066663; https://u-bourgogne.hal.science/hal-04066663/document; https://u-bourgogne.hal.science/hal-04066663/file/Jossart_et_al_2023_postprint.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11066-3

International audience The underexplored intertidal ecosystems of Antarctica are facing rapid changes in important environmental factors. Associated with temperature increase, reduction in coastal ice will soon expose new ice-free areas that will be colonized by local or distant biota. To enable detection of future changes in faunal composition, a biodiversity baseline is urgently required. Here, we evaluated intertidal faunal diversity at 13 locations around the Gerlache Strait (western Antarctic Peninsula), using a combination of a quadrat approach, morphological identification and genetic characterization. Our data highlight a community structure comprising four generally distributed and highly abundant species (the flatworm Obrimoposthia wandeli, the bivalve Kidderia subquadrata, and the gastropods Laevilitorina umbilicata and Laevilitorina caliginosa) as well as 79 rarer and less widely encountered species. The most abundant species thrive in the intertidal zone due to their ability to either survive overwinter in situ or to rapidly colonize this zone when conditions allow. In addition, we confirmed the presence of multiple trophic levels at nearly all locations, suggesting that complex inter-specific interactions occur within these communities. Diversity indices contrasted between sampling locations (from 3 to 32 species) and multivariate approaches identified three main groups. This confirms the importance of environmental heterogeneity in shaping diversity patterns within the investigated area. Finally, we provide the first genetic and photographic baseline of the Antarctic intertidal fauna (106 sequences, 137 macrophotographs), as well as preliminary insights on the biogeography of several species. Taken together, these results provide a timely catalyst to assess the diversity and to inform studies of the potential resilience of these intertidal communities.