| 1. |
- Eerkes-Medrano, Dafne, et al.
(författare)
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A community assessment of the demersal fish and benthic invertebrates of the Rosemary Bank Seamount marine protected area (NE Atlantic)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Deep Sea Research Part I. - : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. - 0967-0637 .- 1879-0119. ; 156
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Rosemary Bank Seamount in the NE Atlantic was designated a Marine Protected Area in 2014 by the Scottish Government. Visual and trawl surveys of the seamount have been undertaken since 2007. Here these data are compiled and analysed to provide an assessment of the communities of demersal fish and benthic invertebrates found there. The fish and benthic invertebrate communities changed markedly with depth. Cluster analysis revealed at least four distinct communities of fish: those on the summit, the mid slope, the lower slope and the deep moat at the base of the seamount. The invertebrate community changed at a depth of 1100 m, where mixed-species sponge aggregations dominated to depths of 1500 m. The seamount is an important site for vulnerable marine ecosystems, most notably the extensive and unusually diverse deep-sea sponge grounds on the lower slope. Other prioritised conservation species and habitats recorded included cold water corals, orange roughy, blue ling, leafscale gulper shark and the Portuguese dogfish. Due to sampling constraints some areas of the seamount still remain unknown. A precautionary approach to protecting the entire seamount would achieve multiple conservation objectives. The data presented here serve as a base-line to assess the impact of management intervention in the future.
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| 2. |
- Steffen, Karin, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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Sea for yourself: evaluating the ddRADseq Stacks de novo pipeline with a reference genome in the deep-sea sponge Geodia barretti
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Reduced representation sequencing appraches such as ddRADseq allow to assess population connectivity and infer population summary statistics, both with and without a reference genome. However, as ddRADseq employs total DNA indiscriminate of the origin, the method warrants validation prior to application in microbial rich systems. One example of a complex system are sponges such as the North Atlantic high microbial abundance sponge Geodia barretti. This species is known to maintain large, putatively disjoint populations across the deep-sea, but its dispersal capabilities remain unclear as larvae have never been observed. To study the effect of microbial contamination on data processing and population genetic inference in ddRADseq, we produced a reference genome of G. barretti and collected 163 individuals across its habitat range and bathymetry (35–1560 m) in the North Atlantic. We processed the data with Stacks2 both with and without a reference genome (de novo and hybrid/‘reference-integrated’ approach). We found that strong population structures are recovered by both approaches and across different population genetic analyses (fastStructure, PCA, FST). Compared to previous work using microsatellites in shallow populations, we found only very weak population structure across large geographic stretches (>1000 km). However, over a third (34%) of the final loci produced by the de novo pipeline did not map to the reference genome indicating that these might be of microbial origin. For comparably complex systems this means that de novo RRS genotyping approaches may contain a considerable amount of off-target loci potentially biasing the results.
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| 3. |
- Taboada, Sergi, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic diversity, gene flow and hybridization in fan-shaped sponges (Phakellia spp.) in the North-East Atlantic deep sea
- 2022
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Ingår i: Deep Sea Research Part I. - : Elsevier. - 0967-0637 .- 1879-0119. ; 181
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deep-sea North Atlantic sponge grounds are crucial components of the marine fauna providing a key role in ecosystem functioning. To properly develop effective conservation and management plans, it is crucial to understand the genetic diversity, molecular connectivity patterns and turnover at the population level of the species involved. Here we present the study of two congeneric sponges, Phakellia robusta and Phakellia hirondellei, using multiple sources of evidence. Our phylogenetic study using a fragment of COI placed these two species as sister. Haplotype network analysis using COI revealed no genetic structure for P. hirondellei in samples from the Cantabrian Sea (<100 km). Contrastingly, P. robusta showed a clear genetic structure separating deep-water samples from the Cantabrian Sea and the Hatton-Rockall Basin, from samples from shallower waters from Kerry Head Reefs, NW of Orkney, and Norway. ddRADseq-derived SNPs for P. robusta also segregated samples by bathymetry rather than by geographical distances, and detected a predominant northwards migration for shallow-water specimens connecting sites separated ca. 2,000 km, probably thanks to prevalent oceanographic currents. Importantly, our analysis using SNPs combining the datasets of the two species revealed the presence of potential hybrids, which was corroborated by morphological (spicule) and microbial (16S amplicon sequencing) analyses. Our data suggest that hybridization between these two species occurred at least two times in the past. We discuss the importance of using next-generation techniques to unveil hybridization and the implications of our results for conservation.
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| 4. |
- Taboada, Sergi, et al.
(författare)
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Long distance dispersal and oceanographic fronts shape the connectivity of the keystone sponge Phakellia ventilabrum in the deep northeast Atlantic
- 2023
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Marine Science. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2296-7745. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Little is known about dispersal in deep-sea ecosystems, especially for sponges, which are abundant ecosystem engineers. Understanding patterns of gene flow in deep-sea sponges is essential, especially in areas where rising pressure from anthropogenic activities makes difficult to combine management and conservation. Here, we combined population genomics and oceanographic modelling to understand how Northeast Atlantic populations (Cantabrian Sea to Norway) of the deep-sea sponge Phakellia ventilabrum are connected. The analysis comprised ddRADseq derived SNP datasets of 166 individuals collected from 57 sampling stations from 17 different areas, including two Marine Protected Areas, one Special Area of Conservation and other areas with different levels of protection. The 4,017 neutral SNPs used indicated high connectivity and panmixis amongst the majority of areas (Ireland to Norway), spanning ca. 2,500-km at depths of 99-900 m. This was likely due to the presence of strong ocean currents allowing long-distance larval transport, as supported by our migration analysis and by 3D particle tracking modelling. On the contrary, the Cantabrian Sea and Roscoff (France) samples, the southernmost areas in our study, appeared disconnected from the remaining areas, probably due to prevailing current circulation patterns and topographic features, which might be acting as barriers for gene flow. Despite this major genetic break, our results suggest that all protected areas studied are well-connected with each other. Interestingly, analysis of SNPs under selection replicated results obtained for neutral SNPs. The relatively low genetic diversity observed along the study area, though, highlights the potential fragility of this species to changing climates, which might compromise resilience to future threats.
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