Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

High zooplankton diversity in the extreme environments of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, Antarctica

Hansson, Lars-Anders LU orcid ; Hylander, Samuel LU ; Dartnall, Herbert J. G. ; Lidstrom, Sven and Svensson, Jan-Erik (2012) In Antarctic Science 24(2). p.131-138
Abstract
The McMurdo Dry Valley lakes of Antarctica constitute some of the harshest and most isolated freshwater environments on Earth which might be expected to limit the biogeographical expansion of many organisms. Despite this, we found that the biodiversity of rotifer zooplankton is the highest ever recorded on the Antarctic mainland. We identified in total nine rotifer taxa, of which six are new to the Antarctic continent, in Lake Hoare, and also the first sub- adult crustacean copepod belonging to the genus Boeckella. A possible explanation for the high biodiversity is that many of the recorded species have arrived in the region in relatively recent times and then established invasive populations, suggesting that their distribution pattern... (More)
The McMurdo Dry Valley lakes of Antarctica constitute some of the harshest and most isolated freshwater environments on Earth which might be expected to limit the biogeographical expansion of many organisms. Despite this, we found that the biodiversity of rotifer zooplankton is the highest ever recorded on the Antarctic mainland. We identified in total nine rotifer taxa, of which six are new to the Antarctic continent, in Lake Hoare, and also the first sub- adult crustacean copepod belonging to the genus Boeckella. A possible explanation for the high biodiversity is that many of the recorded species have arrived in the region in relatively recent times and then established invasive populations, suggesting that their distribution pattern was previously limited only by biogeographical borders. Interestingly, we show that the cosmopolitan rotifer taxa identified are relatively abundant, suggesting that they have established viable populations. Hence, our study suggests that the biogeographical maps have to be redrawn for several species. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
species-richness, invasion, rotifer, copepod, Boeckella, biodiversity
in
Antarctic Science
volume
24
issue
2
pages
131 - 138
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000300878400004
  • scopus:84857847080
ISSN
1365-2079
DOI
10.1017/S095410201100071X
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e592da87-d2e6-47ba-a251-ac14a42b8fea (old id 2517027)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:58:26
date last changed
2024-04-06 20:50:55
@article{e592da87-d2e6-47ba-a251-ac14a42b8fea,
  abstract     = {{The McMurdo Dry Valley lakes of Antarctica constitute some of the harshest and most isolated freshwater environments on Earth which might be expected to limit the biogeographical expansion of many organisms. Despite this, we found that the biodiversity of rotifer zooplankton is the highest ever recorded on the Antarctic mainland. We identified in total nine rotifer taxa, of which six are new to the Antarctic continent, in Lake Hoare, and also the first sub- adult crustacean copepod belonging to the genus Boeckella. A possible explanation for the high biodiversity is that many of the recorded species have arrived in the region in relatively recent times and then established invasive populations, suggesting that their distribution pattern was previously limited only by biogeographical borders. Interestingly, we show that the cosmopolitan rotifer taxa identified are relatively abundant, suggesting that they have established viable populations. Hence, our study suggests that the biogeographical maps have to be redrawn for several species.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Lars-Anders and Hylander, Samuel and Dartnall, Herbert J. G. and Lidstrom, Sven and Svensson, Jan-Erik}},
  issn         = {{1365-2079}},
  keywords     = {{species-richness; invasion; rotifer; copepod; Boeckella; biodiversity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{131--138}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Antarctic Science}},
  title        = {{High zooplankton diversity in the extreme environments of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, Antarctica}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095410201100071X}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S095410201100071X}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}