Tintinnid ciliates of the marine microzooplankton in Arctic Seas: a compilation and analysis of species records

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Dolan, John R., Pierce, Richard W., Yang, Eun Jin
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Observatoire océanologique de Villefranche-sur-mer (OOVM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Biogeography; Biodiversity; Protist; Zooplankton; Plankton; Latitudinal diversity gradient; envir; geo; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Chukchi Sea; Chukchi; Polar Biology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-2049-0; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01395076/file/Tintinnid_Ciliates.pdf; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01395076

International audience We set out to examine a postulated latitudinal trend in species richness within the Arctic Ocean. We compiled species records of tintinnid ciliates in the Arctic from the literature and added our own unpublished Chukchi Sea data to produce a database (available as an Online Resource data file) consisting of 1427 records of 89 species from 414 locations above 65°N sampled from 1885 to 2015. While there was no trend of species richness throughout the Arctic, there was a significant positive relationship between species richness and the number of sites sampled in a 2° band, suggesting a sampling effect. Plotting cumulative numbers of species and cumulative number of sites sampled by year, we found a linear relationship in log cumulative numbers of species and log sites sampled, and a lack of a plateau in the species accumulation trend. Species records are highly dominated by four species, accounting for 45% of the records: Acanthostomella norvegica, Parafavella denticulata, Ptychocylis obtusa and Salpingella acuminata, all of which, except S. acuminata, have long been suspected to be morphologically variable, with different morphotypes given undue species status. Pooling all reported species of Acanthostomella, Parafavella and Ptychocylis yielded little qualitative differences but considerable quantitative differences. We found large discrepancies in geographic coverage. We conclude that many zones projected to experience large changes in sea ice coverage are under-sampled. Based on the historical trend, the list of Arctic tintinnid ciliate species will likely continue to grow with new sampling, regardless of changes in the Arctic Seas.