A new genus and two new species of groundwater paramelitid amphipods from the Pilbara, Western Australia: a combined molecular and morphological approach

Finston, Terrie L.; Johnson, M. S.; Eberhard, Stefan; Cocking, James; McRae, J. M.; Halse, Stuart; Knott, Brenton

doi:10.18195/issn.0312-3162.26(2).2011.154-178

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…Harvey unpublished). Existing work on amphipod taxonomy was supported (Finston et al 2007(Finston et al , 2011.…”

Section: Stygofauna Sample Processing and Identifi Cationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pilbara stygofauna: deep groundwater of an arid landscape contains globally significant radiation of biodiversity

Halse¹,

Scanlon²,

Cocking³

et al. 2014

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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-The Pilbara region was surveyed for stygofauna between 2002 and 2005 with the aims of setting nature conservation priorities in relation to stygofauna, improving the understanding of factors affecting invertebrate stygofauna distribution and sampling yields, and providing a framework for assessing stygofauna species and community signifi cance in the environmental impact assessment process.Approximately 350 species of stygofauna were collected during the survey and extrapolation suggests that 500-550 actually occur in the Pilbara, although taxonomic resolution among some groups of stygofauna is poor and species richness is likely to have been substantially underestimated. More than 50 species were found in a single bore. Even though species richness was underestimated, it is clear that the Pilbara is a globally important region for stygofauna, supporting species densities greater than anywhere other than the Dinaric karst of Europe. This is in part because of a remarkable radiation of candonid ostracods in the Pilbara. Ostracods are the dominant stygofaunal group in terms of both species richness and animal abundance. Together, ostracods, copepods, amphipods and oligochates comprised 77% of species and 96% of animals collected.Stygofauna were found in 72% of samples collected and 81% of wells sampled. The average sample (including those without stygofauna) contained 3.2 ± 0.1 species. A feature of the Pilbara is that stygofauna occur across most of the landscape, often where the depth to groundwater is considerable, although yields were low where depth to groundwater was >30 m. Another feature is high endemicity: on the basis of current taxonomy 98% of the stygobites and 83% of the other groundwater species occur only within the region. Few factors affecting stygofauna occurrence could be identifi ed, however. Numbers of specimens and species collected were positively related to well diameter and negatively related to depth to groundwater. Numbers of species declined in inland sub-regions, although variability within sub-regions was high.While a range of freshwater chemistries occurred, 79% of water samples were weakly saline and NaCl dominated. Profi ling and purging of wells suggested that water quality measurements refl ected aquifer conditions in most situations. Water chemistry appeared to have limited infl uence on stygofauna occurrence in the Pilbara. Geology also appeared to have little effect on stygofauna occurrence but this may have been the result of non-random siting of wells; there was a bias towards wells being in transmissive locations that were not necessarily typical of the geology in which each well occurred.No potential reserves for stygofauna are recommended in this paper but nine areas of high stygofauna richness were identifi ed, including the listed Ethel Gorge stygofauna community. Theoretical analysis of species ranges suggested that half of the species found only in the vicinity of development projects will have ranges less than 680 km 2 . Consequently, projects involving ext...

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“…Harvey unpublished). Existing work on amphipod taxonomy was supported (Finston et al 2007(Finston et al , 2011.…”

Section: Stygofauna Sample Processing and Identifi Cationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 (PSS) which was collected from 10 sub-regions consists of at least four species (King et al 2012b), and Pilbara millsi which was collected from fi ve sub-regions is probably a species complex (Finston et al 2007). The work by Finston et al (2007Finston et al ( , 2011 suggests that amphipods are likely to be confi ned to single sub-regions.…”

Section: Figure 13mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilbara stygofauna: deep groundwater of an arid landscape contains globally significant radiation of biodiversity

Halse¹,

Scanlon²,

Cocking³

et al. 2014

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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“…Many species have been named (Cho & Humphreys, 2010;Finston et al, 2004;Finston et al, 2011;I. Karanovic, 2006I.…”

Section: Biodiversity and Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding subterranean variability: the first genus of Bathynellidae (Bathynellacea, Crustacea) from Western Australia described through a morphological and multigene approach

Perina

Camacho

Huey

et al. 2018

Invert. Systematics

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The number of subterranean taxa discovered in the north of Western Australia has substantially increased due to the requirements for environmental surveys related to mining development. Challenges in estimating subterranean biodiversity and distributions are related to lack of knowledge of taxa with convergent morphological characters in a largely unobservable ecosystem setting. An integrated approach is warranted to understand such complexity. Bathynellidae occur in most Australian aquifers, but only one species has been described so far, and the group lacks a reliable taxonomic framework. A new genus and one new species from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, Pilbaranella ethelensis, gen. et sp. nov., is described using both morphological and molecular data. Three additional species of Pilbaranella are defined through mitochondrial and nuclear genes, using Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery and Poisson Tree Processes species delimitation methods. A comparison of morphology and 18S rRNA sequences between Pilbaranella, gen. nov. and known lineages provides the evidentiary basis for the decision to establish a new genus. This study provides a morphological and molecular framework to work with Bathynellidae, especially in Australia where a highly diverse fauna remains still undescribed.

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Subterranean Fauna of the Arid Zone

Halse¹

2018

On the Ecology of Australia’s Arid Zone

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A new genus and two new species of groundwater paramelitid amphipods from the Pilbara, Western Australia: a combined molecular and morphological approach

Cited by 5 publications

References 27 publications

Pilbara stygofauna: deep groundwater of an arid landscape contains globally significant radiation of biodiversity

Pilbara stygofauna: deep groundwater of an arid landscape contains globally significant radiation of biodiversity

Understanding subterranean variability: the first genus of Bathynellidae (Bathynellacea, Crustacea) from Western Australia described through a morphological and multigene approach

Subterranean Fauna of the Arid Zone

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