Unexpected high abyssal ophiuroid diversity in polymetallic nodule fields of the northeast Pacific Ocean and implications for conservation

作者：Magdalini Christodoulou, Timothy D. O’Hara, Andrew F. Hugall, Sahar Khodami, Clara F. Rodrigues, Ana Hilário, Αnnemiek Vink, Pedro Martínez Arbizu · 发表于：Biogeosciences · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.5194/bg-17-1845-2020 · 被引用次数：56 · 研究领域：Marine Biology and Ecology Research、Marine Ecology and Invasive Species、Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies

Abstract. The largest and commercially appealing mineral deposits can be found in the abyssal sea floor of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a polymetallic nodule province, in the NE Pacific Ocean, where experimental mining is due to take place. In anticipation of deep-sea mining impacts, it has become essential to rapidly and accurately assess biodiversity. For this reason, ophiuroid material collected during eight scientific cruises from five exploration licence areas within CCZ, one area being protected from mining (APEI3, Area of Particular Environmental Interest) in the periphery of CCZ and the DISturbance and re-COLonisation (DISCOL) Experimental Area (DEA), in the SE Pacific Ocean, was examined. Specimens were genetically analysed using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). Maximum-likelihood and neighbour-joining trees were constructed, while four tree-based and distance-based methods of species delineation (automatic barcode gap discovery, ABGD; barcode index numbers, BINs; general mixed Yule–coalescent, GMYC; multi-rate Poisson tree process, mPTP) were employed to propose secondary species hypotheses (SSHs) within the ophiuroids collected. The species delimitation analyses' concordant results revealed the presence of 43 deep-sea brittle star SSHs, revealing an unexpectedly high diversity and showing that the most conspicuous invertebrates in abyssal plains have been so far considerably underestimated. The number of SSHs found in each...