Hopkins Marine Station, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.
Anatomy, Physiology, and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Mol Ecol Resour. 2019 Nov;19(6):1470-1485. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13067. Epub 2019 Aug 22.
Kelp forest ecosystems dominate 150,000 km of global temperate coastline, rivalling the coastal occurrence of coral reefs. Despite the astounding biological diversity and productive ecological communities associated with kelp forests, patterns of species richness and composition are difficult to monitor and compare. Crustose coralline algae are a critically important substrate for propagule settlement for a range of kelp forest species. Coralline-covered cobbles are home to hundreds of species of benthic animals and algae and form a replicable unit for ecological assays. Here, we use DNA metabarcoding of bulk DNA extracts sampled from cobbles to explore patterns of species diversity in kelp forests of the central California coast. The data from 97 cobbles within kelp forest ecosystems at three sites in Central California show the presence of 752 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) and 53 MOTUs assigned up to the species level with >95% similarity to current databases. We are able to detect spatial patterns of important management targets such as abalone recruits, and localized abundance of sea stars in 2012. Comparison of classic ecological surveys of these sites reveals large differences in species targets for these two approaches. In order to make such comparisons more quantitative, we use Presence/Absence Metabarcoding, using the fraction of replicate cobbles showing a species as a measure of its local abundance. This approach provides a fast and repeatable survey method that can be applied for biodiversity assessments across systems to shed light on the impact of different ecological disturbances and the role played by marine protected areas.
海带森林生态系统主导着全球 15 万公里的温带海岸线，与珊瑚礁的沿海分布相媲美。尽管与海带林相关的生物多样性和生产力生态群落令人惊叹，但物种丰富度和组成的模式很难监测和比较。结皮层珊瑚藻是一系列海带林物种繁殖体定殖的关键重要基质。珊瑚覆盖的鹅卵石是数百种底栖动物和藻类的家园，并且是生态测定的可重复单元。在这里，我们使用从鹅卵石中采集的批量 DNA 提取物的 DNA 元条形码来探索加利福尼亚中部海岸海带林的物种多样性模式。来自加利福尼亚中部三个地点的海带林生态系统的 97 个鹅卵石的数据显示存在 752 个分子操作分类单元（MOTU）和 53 个 MOTU 分配到物种水平，与当前数据库的相似度> 95%。我们能够检测到重要管理目标（如鲍鱼幼体）的空间模式，以及 2012 年海星的局部丰度。对这些地点的经典生态调查的比较表明，这两种方法的物种目标存在很大差异。为了使这些比较更具定量性，我们使用存在/不存在代谢条形码，使用显示物种的重复鹅卵石的分数作为其局部丰度的度量。这种方法提供了一种快速且可重复的调查方法，可用于评估不同生态干扰的影响以及海洋保护区所扮演的角色。
