Is the species flock concept operational? The Antarctic shelf case.

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Authors: Lecointre, Guillaume, Améziane, Nadia, Boisselier, Marie-Catherine, Bonillo, Céline, Busson, Frédéric, Causse, Romain, Chenuil, Anne, Couloux, Arnaud, Coutanceau, Jean-Pierre, Cruaud, Corinne, D'Udekem D'Acoz, Cédric, De Ridder, Chantal, Denys, Gaël, Dettaï, Agnès, Duhamel, Guy, Eléaume, Marc, Féral, Jean-Pierre, Gallut, Cyril, Havermans, Charlotte, Held, Christoph, Hemery, Lenaïg, Lautrédou, Anne-Claire, Martin, Patrick, Ozouf-Costaz, Catherine, Pierrat, Benjamin, Pruvost, Patrice, Puillandre, Nicolas, Samadi, Sarah, Saucède, Thomas, Schubart, Christoph, DAVID, Bruno
• Other Authors: Systématique, adaptation, évolution (SAE), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Biologie des Organismes et Ecosystèmes Aquatiques (BOREA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU), Taxonomie - Collections (TC), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Diversité, évolution et écologie fonctionnelle marine (DIMAR), Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille 2-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Genoscope - Centre national de séquençage Evry (GENOSCOPE), Université Paris-Saclay-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 Dijon (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Biologie 1, Universität Regensburg (UR), Supported by the Australian Antarctic Division, the Japanese Science Foundation, the French polar institute ''Institut Paul-Emile Victor'' (and the IPEV programs 281 ''ICOTA'' and 1124 ''REVOLTA'').
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: geo; envir; Antarctic; Eastman; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068787; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00867232/file/2013_Lecointre_PlosOne_Is%20the%20Species%20Flock%20Concept%20Operational-%20The%20Antarctic%20Shelf%20Case.pdf; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00867232

International audience There has been a significant body of literature on species flock definition but not so much about practical means to appraise them. We here apply the five criteria of Eastman and McCune for detecting species flocks in four taxonomic components of the benthic fauna of the Antarctic shelf: teleost fishes, crinoids (feather stars), echinoids (sea urchins) and crustacean arthropods. Practical limitations led us to prioritize the three historical criteria (endemicity, monophyly, species richness) over the two ecological ones (ecological diversity and habitat dominance). We propose a new protocol which includes an iterative fine-tuning of the monophyly and endemicity criteria in order to discover unsuspected flocks. As a result nine " full " species flocks (fulfilling the five criteria) are briefly described. Eight other flocks fit the three historical criteria but need to be further investigated from the ecological point of view (here called " core flocks "). The approach also shows that some candidate taxonomic components are no species flocks at all. The present study contradicts the paradigm that marine species flocks are rare. The hypothesis according to which the Antarctic shelf acts as a species flocks generator is supported, and the approach indicates paths for further ecological studies and may serve as a starting point to investigate the processes leading to flock-like patterning of biodiversity. 10 pages