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Population expansion of an Antarctic king crab?

M. Hellberg,R. Aronson,Kathryn E. L. Smith,Mark I. Duhon,S. Ahyong,G. Lovrich,S. Thatje,J. McClintock

Published 2019 in Frontiers of Biogeography

ABSTRACT

Benthic assemblages of the Antarctic continental shelf are dominated by sessile and slow-moving, epifaunal invertebrates. This community structure persists because shell-crushing (durophagous) predators are absent or ecologically insignificant in shelf habitats. Durophagous teleosts, elasmobranchs, and crustaceans have been excluded by cold waters over the Antarctic shelf for millions of years. Now, as shallow waters warm rapidly, predatory king crabs (Lithodidae) living in the upper bathyal zone could emerge onto the shelf and into nearshore habitats. To assess the potential for a bathymetric expansion, we genetically inferred the historical demography of a population of the most abundant durophagous predator found in deep water off the western Antarctic Peninsula: the lithodid Paralomis birsteini Macpherson. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences from crabs sampled at 1200–1400 m depth on the slope off Marguerite Bay suggests this population has expanded twice over the past 132,000 years. Those expansions were possibly coincident with episodes of climatic warming in Antarctica and elsewhere, raising the possibility of a third expansion in response to anthropogenic climate change.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2019

  • Venue

    Frontiers of Biogeography

  • Publication date

    2019-10-31

  • Fields of study

    Geography, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.21425/F5FBG43165
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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