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Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica

The potential impact of environmental change on terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems can be explored by inspecting biodiversity patterns across large-scale gradients. Unfortunately, morphology-based surveys of Antarctic invertebrates are time-consuming and limited by the cryptic nature of many taxa. We...

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Autores principales: Czechowski, Paul, White, Duanne, Clarke, Laurence, McKay, Alan, Cooper, Alan, Stevens, Mark I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society Publishing 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5210674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28083092
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160296
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author Czechowski, Paul
White, Duanne
Clarke, Laurence
McKay, Alan
Cooper, Alan
Stevens, Mark I.
author_facet Czechowski, Paul
White, Duanne
Clarke, Laurence
McKay, Alan
Cooper, Alan
Stevens, Mark I.
author_sort Czechowski, Paul
collection PubMed
description The potential impact of environmental change on terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems can be explored by inspecting biodiversity patterns across large-scale gradients. Unfortunately, morphology-based surveys of Antarctic invertebrates are time-consuming and limited by the cryptic nature of many taxa. We used biodiversity information derived from high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to elucidate the relationship between soil properties and invertebrate biodiversity in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica. Across 136 analysed soil samples collected from Mount Menzies, Mawson Escarpment and Lake Terrasovoje, we found invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains significantly influenced by soil salinity and/or sulfur content. Phyla Tardigrada and Arachnida occurred predominantly in low-salinity substrates with abundant nutrients, whereas Bdelloidea (Rotifera) and Chromadorea (Nematoda) were more common in highly saline substrates. A significant correlation between invertebrate occurrence, soil salinity and time since deglaciation indicates that terrain age indirectly influences Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity, with more recently deglaciated areas supporting greater diversity. Our study demonstrates the value of HTS metabarcoding to investigate environmental constraints on inconspicuous soil biodiversity across large spatial scales.
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spelling pubmed-52106742017-01-12 Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica Czechowski, Paul White, Duanne Clarke, Laurence McKay, Alan Cooper, Alan Stevens, Mark I. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) The potential impact of environmental change on terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems can be explored by inspecting biodiversity patterns across large-scale gradients. Unfortunately, morphology-based surveys of Antarctic invertebrates are time-consuming and limited by the cryptic nature of many taxa. We used biodiversity information derived from high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to elucidate the relationship between soil properties and invertebrate biodiversity in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica. Across 136 analysed soil samples collected from Mount Menzies, Mawson Escarpment and Lake Terrasovoje, we found invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains significantly influenced by soil salinity and/or sulfur content. Phyla Tardigrada and Arachnida occurred predominantly in low-salinity substrates with abundant nutrients, whereas Bdelloidea (Rotifera) and Chromadorea (Nematoda) were more common in highly saline substrates. A significant correlation between invertebrate occurrence, soil salinity and time since deglaciation indicates that terrain age indirectly influences Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity, with more recently deglaciated areas supporting greater diversity. Our study demonstrates the value of HTS metabarcoding to investigate environmental constraints on inconspicuous soil biodiversity across large spatial scales. The Royal Society Publishing 2016-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC5210674/ /pubmed/28083092 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160296 Text en © 2016 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Czechowski, Paul
White, Duanne
Clarke, Laurence
McKay, Alan
Cooper, Alan
Stevens, Mark I.
Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title_full Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title_fullStr Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title_full_unstemmed Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title_short Age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica
title_sort age-related environmental gradients influence invertebrate distribution in the prince charles mountains, east antarctica
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5210674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28083092
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160296
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