USAP-DC

The west Antarctic Peninsula is warming rapidly, and continuing changes in the thermal regime will likely result in severe consequences for marine fauna, including potential extinction of strongly adapted stenotherms, and invasions from neighboring faunas. Initial impacts of climate change may result in changes in connectivity among populations of the same species. These changes may will be undetectable by direct observation, but may be assessed via genetic connectivity, i.e. differences in allele or haplotype frequencies among populations can be used to infer levels of gene flow. The proposed research will explore the role that the Scotia Arc plays in connecting populations from South America to Antarctica, a corridor identified as a likely entry route for invaders into Antarctica. It also will examine the way in which cryptic species may confound our knowledge of broad-scale distributions, and in doing so, make contributions towards understanding biodiversity and testing the paradigm of circumpolarity in Antarctica. The principal investigator will to collect multi-locus genetic data across 'species' from a broad suite of benthic marine invertebrate phyla, from multiple locations, in order to address hypotheses regarding speciation and connectivity, to estimate demographic population changes, and to identify the underlying processes that drive observed phylogeographic patterns. Comparative phylogeography is a particularly valuable approach because it enables the identification of long-term barriers and refugia common to groups of species and is consequently highly relevant to conservation planning. Moreover, this work will form a valuable baseline for detecting future changes in connectivity. The results of the research will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. In addition, the project will support the interdisciplinary training of a female graduate student, two undergraduate students, and host additional summer students through the STARS program at SIO, which helps minority students prepare for graduate school. This project will integrate research and education through conducting an interdisciplinary workshop that brings together Earth Science and Biology high school teachers. This workshop aims to assist teachers derive their own curricula uniting plate tectonics, ocean history and evolution, supporting a new high school earth sciences program. Information generated by this project will also directly feed into international efforts to design a series of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Antarctica.

Person	Role
Rouse, Gregory	Investigator

Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems

Award # 1043749

Deployment	Type
NBP1105	ship expedition

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
R2R	Expedition data of NBP1105	None	exists

1. Moore, J. M., Carvajal, J. I., Rouse, G. W., & Wilson, N. G. (2018). The Antarctic Circumpolar Current isolates and connects: Structured circumpolarity in the sea star Glabraster antarctica. Ecology and Evolution, 8(21), 10621–10633. (doi:10.1002/ece3.4551)
2. Moore, J. M., Nishi, E., & Rouse, G. W. (2017). Phylogenetic analyses of Chaetopteridae (Annelida). Zoologica Scripta, 46(5), 596–610. (doi:10.1111/zsc.12238)
3. Knutson, V. L., Brenzinger, B., Schrödl, M., Wilson, N. G., & Giribet, G. (2020). Most Cephalaspidea have a shell, but transcriptomes can provide them with a backbone (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 153, 106943. (doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106943)
4. Von Salm, J. L., Wilson, N. G., Vesely, B. A., Kyle, D. E., Cuce, J., & Baker, B. J. (2014). Shagenes A and B, New Tricyclic Sesquiterpenes Produced by an Undescribed Antarctic Octocoral. Organic Letters, 16(10), 2630–2633. (doi:10.1021/ol500792x)
5. Thomas, S. A. L., Sanchez, A., Kee, Y., Wilson, N. G., & Baker, B. J. (2019). Bathyptilones: Terpenoids from an Antarctic Sea Pen, Anthoptilum grandiflorum (Verrill, 1879). Marine Drugs, 17(9), 513. (doi:10.3390/md17090513)
6. Knestrick, M. A., Wilson, N. G., Roth, A., Adams, J. H., & Baker, B. J. (2019). Friomaramide, a Highly Modified Linear Hexapeptide from an Antarctic Sponge, Inhibits Plasmodium falciparum Liver-Stage Development. Journal of Natural Products, 82(8), 2354–2358. (doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.9b00362)
7. Thomas, S. A. L., von Salm, J. L., Clark, S., Ferlita, S., Nemani, P., Azhari, A., … Baker, B. J. (2017). Keikipukalides, Furanocembrane Diterpenes from the Antarctic Deep Sea Octocoral Plumarella delicatissima. Journal of Natural Products, 81(1), 117–123. (doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00732)
8. Linchangco, G. V., Foltz, D. W., Reid, R., Williams, J., Nodzak, C., Kerr, A. M., … Janies, D. A. (2017). The phylogeny of extant starfish (Asteroidea: Echinodermata) including Xyloplax, based on comparative transcriptomics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 115, 161–170. (doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.07.022)
9. Miller, A. K., Kerr, A. M., Paulay, G., Reich, M., Wilson, N. G., Carvajal, J. I., & Rouse, G. W. (2017). Molecular phylogeny of extant Holothuroidea (Echinodermata). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 111, 110–131. (doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.02.014)
10. Moles, J., Derkarabetian, S., Schiaparelli, S., Schrödl, M., Troncoso, J. S., Wilson, N. G., & Giribet, G. (2021). An approach using ddRADseq and machine learning for understanding speciation in Antarctic Antarctophilinidae gastropods. Scientific Reports, 11(1). (doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87244-5)
11. Lau, S. C. Y., Strugnell, J. M., Sands, C. J., Silva, C. N. S., & Wilson, N. G. (2023). Genomic insights of evolutionary divergence and life histories innovations in Antarctic brittle stars. Molecular Ecology. Portico. (doi:10.1111/mec.16951)