0000000000117073
AUTHOR
Marc Eléaume
Taxonomy 2.0: computer-aided identification tools to assist Antarctic biologists in the field and in the laboratory
Species inventories are essential to the implementation of conservation policies to mitigate biodiversity loss and maintain ecosystem services and their value to the society. This is particularly topical with respect to climate change and direct anthropogenic effects on Antarctic biodiversity, with the identification of the most at-risk taxa and geographical areas becoming a priority. Identification tools are often neglected and considered helpful only for taxonomists. However, the development of new online information technologies and computer-aided identification tools provides an opportunity to promote them to a wider audience, especially considering the emerging generation of scientists…
Understanding processes at the origin of species flocks with a focus on the marine Antarctic fauna
Species flocks (SFs) fascinate evolutionary biologists who wonder whether such striking diversification can be driven by normal evolutionary processes. Multiple definitions of SFs have hindered the study of their origins. Previous studies identified a monophyletic taxon as a SF if it displays high speciosity in an area in which it is endemic (criterion 1), high ecological diversity among species (criterion 2), and if it dominates the habitat in terms of biomass (criterion 3); we used these criteria in our analyses. Our starting hypothesis is that normal evolutionary processes may provide a sufficient explanation for most SFs. We thus clearly separate each criterion and identify which biolog…
Éco-régionalisation et conservation des communautés benthiques de la zone économique exclusive française des îles Kerguelen
The deep-sea benthic ecosystems of the French Kerguelen exclusive economic zone remain poorly understood. To address benthic conservation issues, the authors recently contributed expert knowledge to guide the recent extension of the Marine Reserve of the ‘Terres australes françaises’. In this new study, we propose a benthic ecoregionalisation of the northern Kerguelen Plateau based on a measurable and repeatable methodology that relies on the generalised dissimilarity modelling technique. Data of macro-epibenthic invertebrate species from the POKER 2 (2010) fish stock assessment survey have been used to compute the models. Our results allow us (i) to characterise and map benthic landscape u…
The macro- and megabenthic fauna on the continental shelf of the eastern Amundsen Sea, Antarctica.
11 pages; International audience; In 2008 the BIOPEARL II expedition on board of RRS James Clark Ross sailed to the eastern Amundsen Sea Embayment and Pine Island Bay, one of the least studied Antarctic continental shelf regions due to its remoteness and ice cover. A total of 37 Agassiz trawls were deployed at depth transects along the continental and trough slopes. A total of 5469 specimens, belonging to 32 higher taxonomic groups and more than 270 species, were collected. Species richness per station varied from 1 to 55. The benthic assemblages were dominated by echinoderms and clearly different to those in the Ross, Scotia and Weddell seas. Here we present the macro- and megafaunal assem…
Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Asteroidea database
The present dataset is a compilation of georeferenced occurrences of asteroids (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) in the Southern Ocean. Occurrence data south of 45°S latitude were mined from various sources together with information regarding the taxonomy, the sampling source and sampling sites when available. Records from 1872 to 2016 were thoroughly checked to ensure the quality of a dataset that reaches a total of 13,840 occurrences from 4,580 unique sampling events. Information regarding the reproductive strategy (brooders vs. broadcasters) of 63 species is also made available. This dataset represents the most exhaustive occurrence database on Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic asteroids.