Shallow-water northern hemisphere Jaera (Crustacea, Isopoda, Janiridae) found on whale bones in the southern ocean deep sea: ecology and description of Jaera tyleri sp. nov

Katrin Linse; Jennifer A Jackson; Marina V Malyutina; Angelika Brandt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093018

Shallow-water northern hemisphere Jaera (Crustacea, Isopoda, Janiridae) found on whale bones in the southern ocean deep sea: ecology and description of Jaera tyleri sp. nov

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 24;9(3):e93018. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093018. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Katrin Linse¹, Jennifer A Jackson¹, Marina V Malyutina², Angelika Brandt³

Affiliations

¹ British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
² A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.
³ Biocentre Grindel and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Abstract

The skeleton of a natural whale fall discovered in the Southern Ocean at 1,445 m was densely covered by one small, janirid isopod. Jaera tyleri sp. nov. is the first of its genus found in the southern hemisphere and in the deep sea and is described herein. Morphological and molecular investigations revealed the systematic position of this species new to science. Phylogenetic analysis of the 18S locus confirms that this species falls in a strongly supported monophyletic clade of Jaera species. The whale bone habitat of J. tyleri sp. nov. is quite different from those of other species of the genus Jaera. The analysis of bathymetric and distribution patterns of the Janiridae in general and Jaera specifically confirm the unusualness of the habitat for this isopod species. The abundance of J. tyleri sp. nov. on the whale bones and its absence from other nearby habitats suggests it to be a whale-fall specialist. The analysis of the size-frequency distributions of J. tyleri sp. nov. suggests multimodal population structure with continuous breeding activity throughout the year. The fecundity of the species is low but in line with reduced fecundity observed in polar and small-sized isopods.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bone and Bones*
Genetic Loci*
Isopoda* / classification
Isopoda* / genetics
Phylogeny*
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / genetics*
Whales*

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 18S

Grants and funding

AB and MM were supported by the German Science Foundation for financial support (DFG Br 1121/38-1, 1121/43–1), the Russian Foundation of Basis Research (project 11-04-98586) and Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation (grant 11.G34.31.0010). KL was supported by the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme funded by The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as well as part of the ChEsSO research programme was funded by NERC Consortium Grant (NE/DO1249X/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.