Antarctic ascidians: an isolated and homogeneous fauna

Polar research

Elsa Vázquez¹  Carmen Primo² 

[1] Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Facultade de Ciencias do Mar, Universidade de Vigo, ES-36310 Vigo, Spain;Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Facultade de Ciencias do Mar, Universidade de Vigo, ES-36310 Vigo, SpainCorrespondence

关键词: Ascidiacea;    Antarctica;    biogeographical categories;    cluster analysis;    Southern Ocean;    zoogeography;   

DOI  :  10.1111/j.1751-8369.2009.00110.x

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

Several biogeographical studies have already been performed on the ascidians of the Antarctic region. However, new data obtained in the last few years have led us to a revision of the biogeography of this fauna. To examine the biogeographical structure of the Antarctic region, we divided it into 10 sectors, depending on the principal geographical features, and then applied cluster analysis and a multi-dimensional scaling ordination to a presence/absence matrix of species for each biogeographical area. Our study shows that Antarctic ascidians are a very homogeneous fauna, with a high level of endemism in the whole region (25–51% of Antarctic endemic species per sector), but with a low percentage of sector endemism (only up to 10%). This probably results from isolation arising from the Antarctic Convergence, and the vast geographical distances from adjacent regions, as well as from the relative constancy of the hydrographical conditions and the dispersal of organisms through circumpolar currents. In fact, c...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC