Diversity of benthic marine mollusks of the Strait of Magellan, Chile (Polyplacophora, Gastropoda, Bivalvia): a historical review of natural history

Abstract

An increase in richness of benthic marine mollusks towards high latitudes has been described on the Pacific coast of Chile in recent decades. This considerable increase in diversity occurs specifically at the beginning of the Magellanic Biogeographic Province. Within this province lies the Strait of Magellan, considered the most important channel because it connects the South Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. These characteristics make it an interesting area for marine research; thus, the Strait of Magellan has historically been the area with the greatest research effort within the province. However, despite efforts there is no comprehensive and updated list of the diversity of mollusks within the Strait of Magellan up to now. This study consisted of a complete bibliographic review of all available literature that included samples of mollusks in the Strait of Magellan. More than 300 articles were reviewed, covering 200 years of scientific knowledge. There were 2579 records belonging to 412 taxa, of which 347 are valid species. Of the total valid species, 44 (~13%) are considered of doubtful presence in the Strait. This work increases the known richness of mollusks of the Strait of Magellan by 228%; it is also the first report that integrates all available diversity studies of the three most speciose classes of benthic mollusks (Gastropoda, Bivalvia and Polyplacophora) from the Strait of Magellan.

Actualización del catastro de ensamble de moluscos costero-marinos del archipiélago Diego Ramírez (56°31’S), Chile: Un refugio para la economía sustentable y conservación subantártica

“…3), se puede observar que la riqueza de isla Gonzalo (51 taxa) es alta, considerando que sólo se han podido muestrear dos puntos de toda la isla. Por ejemplo, a lo largo de todo el Estrecho de Magallanes se han reportado 303 especies (Aldea et al 2020). Por lo tanto, el archipiélago Diego Ramírez presentaría el 16,8% de las especies citadas para el Estrecho de Magallanes.…”

“…En este sentido, es importante seguir abordando estudios de biodiversidad en más localidades dentro de la provincia Magallánica, particularmente sitios poco visitados y que representan un gran vacío de información, como por ejemplo la zona expuesta Pacífica de los canales, el archipiélago cabo de Hornos y el archipiélago Diego Ramírez. Esta información permitiría (Valdovinos, 1999), Provincia Magallanica (Linse, 1999;Sirenko, 2006), Estrecho de Magallanes (Aldea et al 2020) e islas Diego Ramirez (este estudio).…”

Revealing the hidden biodiversity of Antarctic and the Magellanic Sub-Antarctic Ecoregion: A comprehensive study of aquatic invertebrates from the BASE Project

“…It is essential to highlight that, despite the research efforts in Antarctica and the SO in the last decades in generating knowledge in biodiversity, there are still many poorly-sampled and -studied areas and habitats. In this regard, the intertidal and shallow subtidal environments of Antarctica and Subantarctic environments are considerably less well-sampled than either the surrounding deep sea ( Brandt et al 2014 , Ojeda et al 2014 , Griffiths and Waller 2016 , Rosenfeld et al 2017 , Aldea et al 2020 , Jossart et al 2023 ). Likewise, in continental environments, recent studies have identified important sampling gaps in Antarctica and Subantarctic ecoregions ( Chown and Convey 2016 , Maturana et al 2019 , Ganan et al 2021 , Hawes et al 2023 ).…”

“…The Subantarctic environments represent a large and remote geographic area and, due to its extreme conditions (climatic and oceanographic) ( Griffiths and Waller 2016 ), it denotes a challenge when undertaking biodiversity inventories. For example, in the Magellanic Subantarctic ecoregion, it has been described that the diversity of representative and moderately known groups, such as molluscs, would be underestimated ( Aldea et al 2020 , Rosenfeld et al 2020 ). In addition, with the progress of molecular tools to date, new lineages continue to be detected in both invertebrates and vertebrates ( Gonzalez-Wevar et al 2018 , Maturana et al 2021 , Rozzi et al 2022 ).…”

Molecular analysis of Lepidopleurus cajetanus (Poli, 1791) (Polyplacophora, Leptochitonidae) from the Mediterranean and near Atlantic

“…The species is not reported in recent papers dealing with Leptochitonidae from Chile ( Sirenko 2006 ; Schwabe 2009 ; Schwabe and Sellanes 2010 ; Sirenko 2015 ; Sirenko and Sellanes 2016 ), but it is still (erroneously) reported in various lists. Recently, Aldea et al (2020) reported L. cullierti as a dubious species. In conclusion, at least as far as concerns living species, Lepidopleurus is presently a monotypic genus.…”