Structure of small tropical island freshwater fish and crustacean communities: A niche‐or dispersal‐based process?

Determining the relative importance of niche‐ and dispersal‐based processes in the structuring of animal communities is central in ecology. Freshwater fish and crustacean communities of small tropical islands can bring new insights for understanding these processes as all their species present a pelagic larval stage which gives them important dispersal capacities. Consequently, we hypothesized that dispersal‐based process may be preponderant for structuring these communities from the regional to the local, that is, survey site, scales. Gradient forest analyses allowed us to model the effect of 12 environmental variables on freshwater taxa abundances in two southwestern Indian Ocean islands: Mayotte (26 taxa) and Reunion (21). A total of 153 surveys in Mayotte and 266 in Reunion were used for building the models. Despite the strong heterogeneity of environmental conditions between the two islands, the main factors structuring freshwater fish and crustacean communities in both islands were the elevation and the slope of the sites. The observed structure appeared more pronounced for predatory species than for primary consumers and omnivores. As predators generally have limited locomotor capacities, it is concluded that dispersal‐based process structures these communities not only at large geographical scales but also at the intra‐watershed scale, by limiting the inland penetration (or dispersion) of species in relation to their locomotor capacities. However, more knowledge concerning ecological traits and taxonomic status of many species is needed to confirm this assumption. Abstract in French is available with online material     

Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) of Mexican terrestrial mammals at different area units: when size matters

Abstract Aim Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) is a biogeographical method that uses a parsimony algorithm to obtain an area cladogram, based on taxa inhabiting the study areas. We compare its performance at different geographical units (½° and 1° quadrats, ecoregions and biogeographical provinces) to analyse distributional patterns of Mexican terrestrial mammals, in order to assess the importance of the size of area units. Location The area analysed corresponds to Mexico. Methods Parsimony analyses were based on 56,859 collection records, corresponding to 703 genera, species and subspecies. Four data matrices were constructed for: (1) 716 quadrats of ½° latitude × ½° longitude, (2) 230 quadrats of 1° latitude × 1° longitude, (3) forty‐five ecoregions and (4) fourteen biogeographical provinces. Results For the ½° quadrat matrix, we obtained six cladograms of 17,138 steps. For the 1° quadrat matrix, we obtained five cladograms (strict consensus with 9394 steps). For the matrix of ecoregions, we obtained twelve cladograms (strict consensus cladogram with 3009 steps). For the provinces, we obtained a single cladogram with 1603 steps. Main conclusions The best results were obtained with natural areas instead of quadrats. There seems to exist a trend to decrease the absolute number of steps and an increase in the absolute and relative number of synapomorphies as the size of the area units decreases, although this does not necessarily occur for the number of cladograms.     

Biodiversity patterns in Indian Ocean corals, and effects of taxonomic error in data

Corals from 26 sites in the Indian Ocean, from numerous taxonomic sources, are analysed for distribution patterns after applying a consistent synonymy. The data set contains double the amount of distribution information used previously. Cluster analysis shows several contiguous regional groupings within this ocean, and no geographically dispersed groupings exist. Between-site species similarity correlates negatively with distance between sites. Coral species diversity and genus diversity plotted with latitude and longitude confirm that a band of high diversity stretches across the entire Indian Ocean, but that in this Ocean, unlike the Pacific and greater Caribbean area, there is no clear gradient with latitude at least up to the latitudinal limits of coral growth. About half the species are widespread throughout the Indian Ocean. Species frequency/distribution curves and cumulative frequency curves show that 150 species occur at only 2–4 sites. Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis using only these species confirms that they are important in forming sub-regional groupings which are superimposed on a general Indian Ocean homogeneity.The perennial problem of error in taxonomic data sets is examined. Increasing taxonomic error is introduced into the data using random methods. It is found that about 25% more error can be added to this data set before the relationship between similarity coefficient and geographical distance between pairs of sites is lost. Measures extracted from the clustering procedure using the original data and the data sets with added taxonomic error, show a sharp loss in cluster formation after addition of about 10 or 20% more error.     

中印度洋与南海西部表层海水细菌多样性

细菌在海洋生物地球化学循环中发挥着重要作用。为更好地了解海洋细菌的特征及其在海洋环境中的潜在作用, 本文利用纯培养与16S rRNA基因高通量测序技术对中印度洋与南海西部海域表层海水细菌多样性进行研究。纯培养结果表明, 自中印度洋与南海西部表层海水中共分离275株可培养海洋细菌, 隶属于4门49属75种。变形菌门是绝对优势类群(占总株数的68.7%), 其次是放线菌门(21.5%)、拟杆菌门(9.1%)和厚壁菌门(0.7%)。在属水平, 微杆菌属(Microbacterium)与弧菌属(Vibrio)是主要的优势属, 共占总株数的30.0%。在3种分离培养基中, 自1/10 × 2216E培养基中分离细菌的数目与种类最多(89株, 30属); 分离菌株中的细菌菌株有7、9与3个属分别仅在2216E、1/10 × 2216E及葡萄糖甘露糖(glucose-mannose, GM)培养基中生长。此外, 共分离培养出50株细菌(26种)可能代表潜在新分类单元。高通量测序结果显示, 中印度洋和南海西部表层海水中共有23个门531个属。优势门类为变形菌门(72.2%)和拟杆菌门(15.3%), 优势属为嗜冷杆菌属(Psychrobacter, 24.4%)、盐单胞菌属(Halomonas, 16.3%)和亚硫酸杆菌属(Sulfitobacter, 13.9%)。此外, 中印度洋表层海水细菌Shannon-Wiener指数与Pielou均匀度指数显著高于南海西部(P < 0.05), 且细菌群落结构显著不同(P < 0.05)。综合纯培养与原位细菌数据得出, 中印度洋与南海西部海洋细菌具有丰富的多样性, 具有进一步开发研究的价值。     

西南印度洋中脊深海沉积物砷抗性菌的富集分离与多样性分析

[目的]为了筛选深海砷抗性菌,了解印度洋中脊深海沉积物砷抗性菌的多样性情况.[方法]通过砷富集培养,筛选出砷抗性菌;通过变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)分析与构建16S rDNA克隆文库法两种手段分析了富集物中砷抗性菌的多样性.利用兼并引物PCR,从抗性菌株中克隆与砷抗性相关的基因.[结果]共筛选到8株砷抗性菌,分别属于y-proteobacteria的5个不同的属.其中,菌株AS-I1-3的抗性最高,可以在26×10-3 mol/L三价砷存在的情况下生长,该菌株的16S rDNA序列与菌株Pseudoalteromonas tetraodoni IAM同源性最高(100%).DGGE分析显示,该菌是富集物中的最优势菌,其次是盐单胞菌(Halomonas)和海杆菌(Marinobacter).16S rDNA克隆文库分析结果进一步证明,与菌株AS-I1-3序列相同的克隆子占整个克隆文库的72.5%;而与菌株AS-I1-5(Halomonas meridiana,100%)和菌株Mn-I1-6(Marinobacter vinifirmus,99%)序相同的克隆子分别占10%和7.5%.然而,利用兼并引物PCR,仅能从2株非优势菌中克隆到了与砷抗性相关的基因,表明菌群中的优势抗性菌可能有其他的抗性机制.[结论]在深海环境中存在着多种砷抗性菌,其中Pseudoalteromonas属的菌株是该富集条件下的砷抗性优势菌.这些砷抗性菌在大洋环境砷元素的生物地球化学循环中的作用有待进一步研究.     

Stolidobranch ascidians from the tropical western Indian Ocean

Coastal ascidians collected over two centuries from Suez to Mozambique have been successively deposited in the MNHN and are now described and figured. Some of them were already known from the Indian Ocean, others are common to the Pacific, and some others are new species. Even though the present taxonomic work notably increases our knowledge of the tropical eastern African coast, it comprises so many miscellaneous collections from such distant points that it can only begin to suggest the diversity of ascidians there. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2002, 135 , 65–120.