Is the species flock concept operational? The Antarctic shelf case

PLoS One. 2013 Aug 2;8(8):e68787. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068787. Print 2013.

Abstract

There has been a significant body of literature on species flock definition but not so much about practical means to appraise them. We here apply the five criteria of Eastman and McCune for detecting species flocks in four taxonomic components of the benthic fauna of the Antarctic shelf: teleost fishes, crinoids (feather stars), echinoids (sea urchins) and crustacean arthropods. Practical limitations led us to prioritize the three historical criteria (endemicity, monophyly, species richness) over the two ecological ones (ecological diversity and habitat dominance). We propose a new protocol which includes an iterative fine-tuning of the monophyly and endemicity criteria in order to discover unsuspected flocks. As a result nine « full » species flocks (fulfilling the five criteria) are briefly described. Eight other flocks fit the three historical criteria but need to be further investigated from the ecological point of view (here called "core flocks"). The approach also shows that some candidate taxonomic components are no species flocks at all. The present study contradicts the paradigm that marine species flocks are rare. The hypothesis according to which the Antarctic shelf acts as a species flocks generator is supported, and the approach indicates paths for further ecological studies and may serve as a starting point to investigate the processes leading to flock-like patterning of biodiversity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antarctic Regions
  • Biodiversity*
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Ecology
  • Ecosystem
  • Fishes / physiology*
  • Population Density

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Centre national pour la Recherche scientifique (CNRS), the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) and the Agence nationale pour la Recherche (ANR, grant number “ANTFLOCKS”, USAR 07-BLAN-0213-01 to G.L.), the “Service de Systématique Moléculaire” of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (UMS 2700 CNRS), the “Consortium national de Recherche en Génomique”: it is part of the agreement number 2005/67 between the Genoscope and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle on the project ‘Macrophylogeny of life’ directed by G.L. This work was further supported by DFG project SCHU-1460-8 to C.S. and C.He., the Belgian Science Policy (“Action I” grant number MO/36/022 to C.U.A., “Action II” grant number WI/36/H04 to C.Ha., “PADDII” grant number SD/BA/02B to C.D.R.). This project is a contribution to the EBA-SCAR program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.