Dispersal of the moss <i>Campylopus pyriformis</i> on geothermal ground near the summits of Mount Erebus and Mount Melbourne, Victoria Land, Antarctica

Skotnicki, M. L.; Selkirk, P. M.; Broady, Paul A.; Adam, K. D.; Ninham, J

doi:10.1017/s0954102001000396

Cited by 51 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Sitehopping may, however, occur readily for some Antarctic mosses. For example, Skotnicki et al (56) found close phylogenetic relationships among samples of the moss Campylopus pyriformis from two populations near the summit of Mount Melbourne and a sample from Mount Erebus, more than 350 km away. Broadly, the evidence suggests that geothermal regions most likely acted as glacial refugia for nonvascular plants in Antarctica, with aerial transfer maintaining diversity among patches of ice-free terrain and allowing some, but probably rare and stochastic, long-distance dispersal for recolonization of the rest of the continent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles

Fraser

Terauds

Smellie

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

103

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Climate change has played a critical role in the evolution and structure of Earth's biodiversity. Geothermal activity, which can maintain ice-free terrain in glaciated regions, provides a tantalizing solution to the question of how diverse life can survive glaciations. No comprehensive assessment of this "geothermal glacial refugia" hypothesis has yet been undertaken, but Antarctica provides a unique setting for doing so. The continent has experienced repeated glaciations that most models indicate blanketed the continent in ice, yet many Antarctic species appear to have evolved in almost total isolation for millions of years, and hence must have persisted in situ throughout. How could terrestrial species have survived extreme glaciation events on the continent? Under a hypothesis of geothermal glacial refugia and subsequent recolonization of nongeothermal regions, we would expect to find greater contemporary diversity close to geothermal sites than in nongeothermal regions, and significant nestedness by distance of this diversity. We used spatial modeling approaches and the most comprehensive, validated terrestrial biodiversity dataset yet created for Antarctica to assess spatial patterns of diversity on the continent. Models clearly support our hypothesis, indicating that geothermally active regions have played a key role in structuring biodiversity patterns in Antarctica. These results provide critical insights into the evolutionary importance of geothermal refugia and the history of Antarctic species.dispersal | GIS | polar region | volcano | Last Glacial Maximum

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles

Fraser

Terauds

Smellie

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

103

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“…Aerobiological studies (Marshall, 1996) have demonstrated low-frequency input of airspora from lower latitudes to the region. Studies of the biota of geothermally heated ground at various locations in Antarctica (the South Sandwich Islands, Deception Island and Victoria Land) have found natural colonization by a range of sub-Antarctic and lower latitude bryophyte and arthropod taxa (Convey, Greenslade & Pugh, 2000a ;Convey et al, 2000b ;Skotnicki et al, 2001). Some of these taxa are found only in the close vicinity of areas of heated ground that are transient on a timescale of decades.…”

Section: (2 ) Correlatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological invasions in the Antarctic: extent, impacts and implications

Frénot

Chown

Whinam³

et al. 2005

Biol. Rev.

600

822

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Alien microbes, fungi, plants and animals occur on most of the sub-Antarctic islands and some parts of the Antarctic continent. These have arrived over approximately the last two centuries, coincident with human activity in the region. Introduction routes have varied, but are largely associated with movement of people and cargo in connection with industrial, national scientific program and tourist operations. The large majority of aliens are European in origin. They have both direct and indirect impacts on the functioning of speciespoor Antarctic ecosystems, in particular including substantial loss of local biodiversity and changes to ecosystem processes. With rapid climate change occurring in some parts of Antarctica, elevated numbers of introductions and enhanced success of colonization by aliens are likely, with consequent increases in impacts on ecosystems. Mitigation measures that will substantially reduce the risk of introductions to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic must focus on reducing propagule loads on humans, and their food, cargo, and transport vessels.

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“…The population-level analyses have also led these authors to suggest that long-distance dispersal is not uncommon, though the very fact that long-distance migrants can be detected suggests that the events might be rare (Rogers 2007). Wind is reputedly the primary agent responsible for dispersal over significant distances (Skotnicki et al 1998b(Skotnicki et al , 2001, while overland water flow during periods of elevated temperatures, when melt water is available, is responsible for local dispersal (Skotnicki et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability across life's hierarchies in the terrestrial Antarctic

Chown

Convey

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

189

197

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Antarctica and its surrounding islands lie at one extreme of global variation in diversity. Typically, these regions are characterized as being species poor and having simple food webs. Here, we show that terrestrial systems in the region are nonetheless characterized by substantial spatial and temporal variations at virtually all of the levels of the genealogical and ecological hierarchies which have been thoroughly investigated. Spatial variation at the individual and population levels has been documented in a variety of genetic studies, and in mosses it appears that UV-B radiation might be responsible for within-clump mutagenesis. At the species level, modern molecular methods have revealed considerable endemism of the Antarctic biota, questioning ideas that small organisms are likely to be ubiquitous and the taxa to which they belong species poor. At the biogeographic level, much of the relatively small ice-free area of Antarctica remains unsurveyed making analyses difficult. Nonetheless, it is clear that a major biogeographic discontinuity separates the Antarctic Peninsula and continental Antarctica, here named the 'Gressitt Line'. Across the Southern Ocean islands, patterns are clearer, and energy availability is an important correlate of indigenous and exotic species richness, while human visitor numbers explain much of the variation in the latter too. Temporal variation at the individual level has much to do with phenotypic plasticity, and considerable lifehistory and physiological plasticity seems to be a characteristic of Antarctic terrestrial species. Environmental unpredictability is an important driver of this trait and has significantly influenced life histories across the region and probably throughout much of the temperate Southern Hemisphere. Rapid climate change-related alterations in the range and abundance of several Antarctic and subAntarctic populations have taken place over the past several decades. In many sub-Antarctic locations, these have been exacerbated by direct and indirect effects of invasive alien species. Interactions between climate change and invasion seem set to become one of the most significant conservation problems in the Antarctic. We conclude that despite the substantial body of work on the terrestrial biodiversity of the Antarctic, investigations of interactions between hierarchical levels remain scarce. Moreover, little of the available information is being integrated into terrestrial conservation planning, which lags far behind in this region by comparison with most others.

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Dispersal of the moss Campylopus pyriformis on geothermal ground near the summits of Mount Erebus and Mount Melbourne, Victoria Land, Antarctica

Cited by 51 publications

References 19 publications

Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles

Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles

Biological invasions in the Antarctic: extent, impacts and implications

Spatial and temporal variability across life's hierarchies in the terrestrial Antarctic

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