Marine Biology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
Marine Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
Environ Monit Assess. 2023 Mar 28;195(4):514. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-11066-3.
The underexplored intertidal ecosystems of Antarctica are facing rapid changes in important environmental factors. Associated with temperature increase, reduction in coastal ice will soon expose new ice-free areas that will be colonized by local or distant biota. To enable detection of future changes in faunal composition, a biodiversity baseline is urgently required. Here, we evaluated intertidal faunal diversity at 13 locations around the Gerlache Strait (western Antarctic Peninsula), using a combination of a quadrat approach, morphological identification and genetic characterization. Our data highlight a community structure comprising four generally distributed and highly abundant species (the flatworm Obrimoposthia wandeli, the bivalve Kidderia subquadrata, and the gastropods Laevilitorina umbilicata and Laevilitorina caliginosa) as well as 79 rarer and less widely encountered species. The most abundant species thrive in the intertidal zone due to their ability to either survive overwinter in situ or to rapidly colonize this zone when conditions allow. In addition, we confirmed the presence of multiple trophic levels at nearly all locations, suggesting that complex inter-specific interactions occur within these communities. Diversity indices contrasted between sampling locations (from 3 to 32 species) and multivariate approaches identified three main groups. This confirms the importance of environmental heterogeneity in shaping diversity patterns within the investigated area. Finally, we provide the first genetic and photographic baseline of the Antarctic intertidal fauna (106 sequences, 137 macrophotographs), as well as preliminary insights on the biogeography of several species. Taken together, these results provide a timely catalyst to assess the diversity and to inform studies of the potential resilience of these intertidal communities.
南极洲未被充分探索的潮间带生态系统正面临重要环境因素的快速变化。与温度升高相关的是，沿海冰的减少将很快暴露出新的无冰区，这些无冰区将被本地或远距离生物群所占据。为了能够检测未来动物群组成的变化，迫切需要建立生物多样性基线。在这里，我们使用了一种组合方法，即使用方格法、形态鉴定和遗传特征分析，在南极半岛西部的杰拉许海峡周围的 13 个地点评估了潮间带动物群的多样性。我们的数据突出了一个由四个分布广泛且高度丰富的物种组成的群落结构（扁形动物 Obrimoposthia wandeli、双壳类动物 Kidderia subquadrata，以及腹足纲动物 Laevilitorina umbilicata 和 Laevilitorina caliginosa），以及 79 个较稀有和分布范围较窄的物种。最丰富的物种由于能够在原地越冬或在条件允许时迅速在潮间带定居，因此在潮间带中茁壮成长。此外，我们几乎在所有地点都证实了存在多个营养级，这表明在这些群落中存在复杂的种间相互作用。多样性指数在采样地点之间存在差异（从 3 种到 32 种），多变量方法确定了三个主要群体。这证实了环境异质性在塑造研究区域内多样性模式方面的重要性。最后，我们提供了南极潮间带动物群的第一个遗传和摄影基线（106 个序列，137 个宏观照片），以及对几个物种生物地理学的初步见解。总的来说，这些结果及时地推动了对多样性的评估，并为研究这些潮间带群落的潜在恢复力提供了信息。
