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A pioneer morphological and genetic study of the intertidal fauna of the Gerlache Strait (Antarctic Peninsula)

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

All genetic data, as well as photographs of voucher specimens, can be publicly accessed and downloaded on boldsystems.org, under the “INTGS” project (Intertidal fauna from the Gerlache Strait). Occurrence data can be found on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, B121 dataset) using the following link: https://doi.org/10.15468/56bv6z. Additional data, tables and figures are also provided as Supplementary materials. The specimens used in this study are hosted at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Brussels, Belgium) – Laboratoire de Biologie Marine.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Fernanda Azevedo, Antonio Carapelli, Gemma Collins, Charlène Guillaumot, Christoph Held, Bart Hellemans, Katrin Linse, Borja Mercado, Yi Ming Gan, Amy Moran, Lenka Nealova, Stefano Schiaparelli, Lucas Terrana, Anton Van de Putte, Ben Wallis and Helena Wiklund for their generous help and advice. We also thank the crew members (Ocean Expeditions) and scientists of the Belgica 121 expedition. Sebastian Rosenfeld would like to thank the Project ANID-Millennium Science Initiative Program - ICN2021_002.

Funding

This work was supported by the ‘Refugia and Ecosystem Tolerance in the Southern Ocean’ project (RECTO; BR/154/A1/RECTO) funded by the ‘Belgian Science Policy Office’ (BELSPO). This is contribution no. 28 to the RECTO project. The B121 expedition was funded by the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), the Leopold 3 Fund for the exploration and conservation of Nature and the Royal Belgian Society for Zoology. David Bauman was funded by the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 895799. Henrik Christiansen was funded by the BELSPO project COPE (B2/191/P1/COPE). Blanca Figuerola received funding from the Beatriu de Pinós program (2019-BP-00183), funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 801370. Peter Convey was supported by NERC core funding to the BAS ‘Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation’ Team.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

    Quentin Jossart, Camille VE Moreau & Bruno Danis

  2. Marine Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Quentin Jossart

  3. UMR CNRS 6282, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France

    Quentin Jossart & Thomas Saucède

  4. AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, Montpellier, IRD, France

    David Bauman

  5. Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David Bauman

  6. Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Henrik Christiansen

  7. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland

    Henrik Christiansen

  8. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Madeleine J. Brasier

  9. British Antarctic Survey, NERC, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Peter Convey

  10. Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Peter Convey

  11. Millenium Institute Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (MI-BASE), Santiago, Chile

    Peter Convey & Sebastian Rosenfeld

  12. Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Rachel Downey

  13. Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

    Blanca Figuerola

  14. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

    Patrick Martin

  15. Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Washington, United States of America

    Jon Norenburg

  16. Laboratorio de Ecosistemas Marinos Antarticos y Subantarticos, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

    Sebastian Rosenfeld

  17. Centro de Investigación Gaia‑Antártica, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

    Sebastian Rosenfeld

  18. Laboratory of Trophic and Isotopes Ecology (LETIS), Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Marie Verheye

  19. Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Marie Verheye

Authors
  1. Quentin Jossart
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  2. David Bauman
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  3. Camille VE Moreau
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  4. Thomas Saucède
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  6. Madeleine J. Brasier
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  7. Peter Convey
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  8. Rachel Downey
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  9. Blanca Figuerola
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  13. Marie Verheye
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  14. Bruno Danis
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the study: Quentin Jossart, Camille VE Moreau, Thomas Saucède, Bruno Danis; Performed fieldwork: Quentin Jossart, Camille VE Moreau, Thomas Saucède, Henrik Christiansen, Bruno Danis; Performed taxonomic work: Quentin Jossart, Camille VE Moreau, Thomas Saucède, Madeleine J Brasier, Peter Convey, Rachel Downey, Blanca Figuerola, Patrick Martin, Jon Norenburg, Sebastian Rosenfeld, Marie Verheye; Performed genetic laboratory work: Quentin Jossart, Henrik Christiansen; Analysed the data: Quentin Jossart, David Bauman, Bruno Danis; Wrote the paper: Quentin Jossart, David Bauman, Camille VE Moreau, Thomas Saucède, Henrik Christiansen, Madeleine J Brasier, Peter Convey, Rachel Downey, Blanca Figuerola, Patrick Martin, Jon Norenburg, Sebastian Rosenfeld, Marie Verheye, Bruno Danis.

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Correspondence to Quentin Jossart.

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Jossart, Q., Bauman, D., Moreau, C.V. et al. A pioneer morphological and genetic study of the intertidal fauna of the Gerlache Strait (Antarctic Peninsula). Environ Monit Assess 195, 514 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11066-3

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