Laboratório de Protistologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, CCS, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Faculdade de Formação de Professores (UERJ FFP), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Universidad Austral de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile.
Eur J Protistol. 2022 Jun;84:125892. doi: 10.1016/j.ejop.2022.125892. Epub 2022 Mar 24.
There is a significant gap in research and knowledge on the diversity and distribution of Chilean ciliates. To tackle these issues, we used cultures and protargol preparations to describe the ciliates present in poorly explored areas. At these sites, we identified 45 ciliate morphospecies, 35 of which represent unprecedent records to Chile. Then, we brought together our records with literature data to construct a species checklist. This checklist summarises 132 years of data and describes the identity, habitat and distribution of 207 species, including 15 species potentially endemic to Chile. This checklist is far from complete: a diversity estimate suggests that at least two-thirds of the ciliate species occurring in Chile have yet to be described. The checklist is dominated by freshwater taxa because ciliates from marine, brackish and terrestrial environments have rarely been investigated in Chile. Finally, after controlling for sampling artefacts, we found that ciliates exhibit a bell-shaped latitudinal diversity gradient in Chile. This peculiar biogeographical pattern is common in Chile. Plants, animals and testate amoebae also exhibit a bell-shaped latitudinal diversity gradient in Chile. This finding suggests that the historical contingencies that drove the biogeography of the Chilean biota also shaped ciliate biogeography.
智利纤毛虫的多样性和分布研究存在显著差距，知识也存在空缺。为了解决这些问题，我们使用培养物和蛋白银染色法来描述在研究较少的地区存在的纤毛虫。在这些地点，我们确定了 45 种纤毛虫形态种，其中 35 种是智利以前未曾记录过的。然后，我们将我们的记录与文献数据结合起来，构建了一个物种清单。该清单总结了 132 年来的数据，描述了 207 种物种的身份、栖息地和分布情况，其中包括 15 种可能是智利特有的物种。这个清单远非完整：多样性估计表明，智利至少有三分之二的纤毛虫物种尚未被描述。该清单主要包括淡水分类群，因为智利很少对海洋、半咸水和陆地环境中的纤毛虫进行调查。最后，在控制了采样偏差后，我们发现纤毛虫在智利呈现出钟形的纬度多样性梯度。这种特殊的生物地理学模式在智利很常见。植物、动物和有壳变形虫在智利也呈现出钟形的纬度多样性梯度。这一发现表明，驱动智利生物区系生物地理学的历史偶然性也塑造了纤毛虫生物地理学。
