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Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii
BACKGROUND: The discovery of cryptic species complexes within morphologically established species comes with challenges in the classification and handling of these species. We hardly know to what extent species within a species complex differ ecologically. Such knowledge is essential to assess the v...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10404395/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37551343 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15800 |
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author | Kabus, Jana Cunze, Sarah Dombrowski, Andrea Karaouzas, Ioannis Shumka, Spase Jourdan, Jonas |
author_facet | Kabus, Jana Cunze, Sarah Dombrowski, Andrea Karaouzas, Ioannis Shumka, Spase Jourdan, Jonas |
author_sort | Kabus, Jana |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The discovery of cryptic species complexes within morphologically established species comes with challenges in the classification and handling of these species. We hardly know to what extent species within a species complex differ ecologically. Such knowledge is essential to assess the vulnerability of individual genetic lineages in the face of global change. The abiotic conditions, i.e., the Grinnellian niche that a genetic lineage colonizes, provides insights into how diverse the ecological requirements of each evolutionary lineage are within a species complex. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We sampled the cryptic species complex of the amphipod Gammarus roeselii from Central Germany to Greece and identified genetic lineages based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcoding. At the same time, we recorded various abiotic parameters and local pollution parameters using a series of in vitro assays to then characterize the Grinnellian niches of the morphospecies (i.e., Gammarus roeselii sensu lato) as well as each genetic lineage. Local pollution can be a significant factor explaining current and future distributions in times of increasing production and release of chemicals into surface waters. RESULTS: We identified five spatially structured genetic lineages in our dataset that differed to varying degrees in their Grinnellian niche. In some cases, the niches were very similar despite the geographical separation of lineages, supporting the hypothesis of niche conservatism while being allopatrically separated. In other cases, we found a small niche that was clearly different from those of other genetic lineages. CONCLUSION: The variable niches and overlaps of different dimensions make the G. roeselii species complex a promising model system to further study ecological, phenotypic and functional differentiation within this species complex. In general, our results show that the Grinnellian niches of genetically distinct molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) within a cryptic species complex can differ significantly between each other, calling for closer inspection of cryptic species in a conservational and biodiversity context. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10404395 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104043952023-08-07 Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii Kabus, Jana Cunze, Sarah Dombrowski, Andrea Karaouzas, Ioannis Shumka, Spase Jourdan, Jonas PeerJ Biodiversity BACKGROUND: The discovery of cryptic species complexes within morphologically established species comes with challenges in the classification and handling of these species. We hardly know to what extent species within a species complex differ ecologically. Such knowledge is essential to assess the vulnerability of individual genetic lineages in the face of global change. The abiotic conditions, i.e., the Grinnellian niche that a genetic lineage colonizes, provides insights into how diverse the ecological requirements of each evolutionary lineage are within a species complex. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We sampled the cryptic species complex of the amphipod Gammarus roeselii from Central Germany to Greece and identified genetic lineages based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcoding. At the same time, we recorded various abiotic parameters and local pollution parameters using a series of in vitro assays to then characterize the Grinnellian niches of the morphospecies (i.e., Gammarus roeselii sensu lato) as well as each genetic lineage. Local pollution can be a significant factor explaining current and future distributions in times of increasing production and release of chemicals into surface waters. RESULTS: We identified five spatially structured genetic lineages in our dataset that differed to varying degrees in their Grinnellian niche. In some cases, the niches were very similar despite the geographical separation of lineages, supporting the hypothesis of niche conservatism while being allopatrically separated. In other cases, we found a small niche that was clearly different from those of other genetic lineages. CONCLUSION: The variable niches and overlaps of different dimensions make the G. roeselii species complex a promising model system to further study ecological, phenotypic and functional differentiation within this species complex. In general, our results show that the Grinnellian niches of genetically distinct molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) within a cryptic species complex can differ significantly between each other, calling for closer inspection of cryptic species in a conservational and biodiversity context. PeerJ Inc. 2023-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10404395/ /pubmed/37551343 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15800 Text en © 2023 Kabus et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Biodiversity Kabus, Jana Cunze, Sarah Dombrowski, Andrea Karaouzas, Ioannis Shumka, Spase Jourdan, Jonas Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title | Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title_full | Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title_fullStr | Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title_full_unstemmed | Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title_short | Uncovering the Grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex Gammarus roeselii |
title_sort | uncovering the grinnellian niche space of the cryptic species complex gammarus roeselii |
topic | Biodiversity |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10404395/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37551343 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15800 |
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