Ecological partitioning and diversity in tropical planktonic foraminifera

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

Christopher M Wade¹  Heidi A Seears¹  Kate F Darling² 

[1] School of Biology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;School of GeoSciences and Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;

关键词: Genetic Type;    Planktonic Foraminifera;    Bulk Assemblage;    Globigerina Bulloides;    Globigerinoides Ruber;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2148-12-54

 received in 2011-11-14, accepted in 2012-04-16,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEcological processes are increasingly being viewed as an important mode of diversification in the marine environment, where the high dispersal potential of pelagic organisms, and a lack of absolute barriers to gene flow may limit the occurrence of allopatric speciation through vicariance. Here we focus on the potential role of ecological partitioning in the diversification of a widely distributed group of marine protists, the planktonic foraminifera. Sampling was conducted in the tropical Arabian Sea, during the southwest (summer) monsoon, when pronounced environmental conditions result in a strong disparity in temperature, salinity and productivity between distinct northern and southern water masses.ResultsWe uncovered extensive genetic diversity within the Arabian Sea planktonic foraminifera, identifying 13 morphospecies, represented by 20 distinct SSU rRNA genetic types. Several morphospecies/genetic types displayed non-random biogeographical distributions, partitioning between the northern and southern water masses, giving a strong indication of independent ecological adaptations.ConclusionsWe propose sea-surface primary productivity as the main factor driving the geographical segregation of Arabian Sea planktonic foraminifera, during the SW monsoon, with variations in symbiotic associations possibly playing a role in the specific ecological adaptations observed. Our findings suggest that ecological partitioning could be contributing to the high levels of 'cryptic' genetic diversity observed within the planktonic foraminifera, and support the view that ecological processes may play a key role in the diversification of marine pelagic organisms.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Seears et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.