Updating Geographic Distribution of Artemia urmiana Günther, 1890 (Branchiopoda: Anostraca) in Europe: An Integrated and Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

Artemia urmiana (a species previously considered endemic of Lake Urmia, NW Iran) has been found in Lake Koyashskoe, a hypersaline lake on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula (Ukraine). Therefore, this is the first record of A. urmiana in Europe which updates its distribution. The species identification was based on an integrated and interdisciplinary approach using discriminant analysis of the morphometric characters, scanning electron microscopy, and molecular profile analysis. The data derived from the above mentioned approaches converge to significant similarity of the population under investigation with A. urmiana. The updated geographic distribution of the species, deriving from the present report, asks for additional contribution of other disciplines (e.g., avian dispersal of cysts, history of salt trade) to be finally clarified. At present we suggest that the punctuated geographic distribution of A. urmiana is probably linked to its low dispersal capability, and we suppose that its presence in two distant sites could be explained by historical human salt trade between Lake Urmia and the ancient port of Kimmerik, whose remains have been found in the present Lake Koyashskoe.

Geographical distribution and evolutionary divergence times of Asian populations of the brine shrimpArtemia(Crustacea, Anostraca)

“…Assuming that they have recently expanded, some individuals would not have had sufficient time to diverge from their original sexual species (Law & Crespi, 2002). Thirdly, A. urmiana might have dispersed to adjacent regions via migratory birds or human activities, so that this taxon is no longer endemic in Asia (Abatzopoulos et al, 2009). The latter hypothesis needs to be carefully reassessed, as we only deal with mtDNA sequence variation and thus more detailed systematic investigations using ncDNA markers and life-history studies are required for the populations studied so far, or for other unexplored localities in Eurasia and Africa.…”

A revision of Artemia biodiversity in Macaronesia

“…A. salina (Linnaeus 1758) inhabits the Mediterranean Basin, while A. urmiana (Gunther, 1900) is present in Iran and the Crimea [8,9], A. sinica (Cai 1989) is found in China and neighbouring provinces, A. tibetiana (Abatzopoulos, Zhang and Sorgeloos 1998) is present in salt lakes of the Tibetan plateau, and an undescribed population of Artemia sp. has been reported in Kazakhstan [10].…”

Functional rare males in diploid parthenogeneticArtemia

“…Parthenogenetic populations occur only in the Old Word, from the Canary Islands in the west to China in the east, and they have been introduced in Australia (Gajardo et al ., ; McMaster et al ., ). These parthenogenetic lineages co‐occur with diverse sexual species across their range, including A. salina (Linnaeus 1758) in the Mediterranean region and South Africa (Amat et al ., ), A. urmiana (Günther 1899) in and around lake Urmia (Iran) and Crimean salt lakes (Abatzopoulos et al ., ), A. sinica (Cai 1989) in Central and Northern China, A. tibetiana (Abatzopoulos et al ., ; Van Stappen et al ., ) in the Tibetan plateau and a yet undescribed sexual species in Kazakhstan (Pilla & Beardmore, ; Litvinenko & Boyko, ). In Australia, introduced populations of diploid parthenogenetic Artemia may coexist with endemic brine shrimps of the genus Parartemia (McMaster et al ., ).…”