Kerguelen Islands: a living laboratory to understand the benthic biodiversity of the Antarctic

• Main Authors: Féral, Jean-Pierre, Poulin, Elie
• Format: Lecture
• Language: French
• Published: Société Française d'Ichtyologie 2011
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Kerguelen Islands; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3238215

The high proportion of brooding (50 to 70% depending on phyla) compared with broadcaster species among invertebrates living along the coast of the Southern ocean has been traditionally interpreted as an adaptation to local environmental conditions. Currently, however, species with a planktotrophic developmental mode are ecologically dominant along coastal areas, in terms of abundance of individuals. The fact that Kerguelen island is inhabited by such species and that the French base Port-aux-Français, with its equipped marine laboratory, made it possible to address questions as to why are there so many brooders in the coastal waters of the Southern ocean and if the apparent ecological success of broadcasters related to their developmental mode. We argue that the present shallow antarctic benthic invertebrate fauna is the result of two processes acting at different temporal scales. First, the high proportion of brooding species compared with coastal communities elsewhere corresponds to species-level selection occurring over geological and evolutionary times which explains the very high biodiversity observed in coastal waters. Second, the ecological dominance of broadcasters is the result of processes operating at ecological timescales that are associated with the advantage of having pelagic larvae under highly disturbed conditions (e.g., ice scouring).