Author:
West Katrina M.,Richards Zoe T.,Harvey Euan S.,Susac Robert,Grealy Alicia,Bunce Michael
Abstract
AbstractSubterranean ecosystems are understudied and challenging to conventionally survey given the inaccessibility of underground voids and networks. In this study, we conducted a eukaryotic environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding survey across the karst landscape of Christmas Island, (Indian Ocean, Australia) to evaluate the utility of this non-invasive technique to detect subterranean aquatic ‘stygofauna’ assemblages. Three metabarcoding assays targeting the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear 18S genes were applied to 159 water and sediment samples collected from 23 caves and springs across the island. Taken together, our assays detected a wide diversity of chordates, cnidarians, porifera, arthropods, molluscs, annelids and bryozoans from 71 families across 60 orders. We report a high level of variation between cave and spring subterranean community compositions which are significantly influenced by varying levels of salinity. Additionally, we show that dissolved oxygen and longitudinal gradients significantly affect biotic assemblages within cave communities. Lastly, we combined eDNA-derived community composition and environmental (water quality) data to predict potential underground interconnectivity across Christmas Island. We identified three cave and spring groups that showed a high degree of biotic and abiotic similarity indicating likely local connectivity. This study demonstrates the applicability of eDNA metabarcoding to detect subterranean eukaryotic communities and explore underground interconnectivity.
Funder
Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference60 articles.
1. Guzik, M. T. et al. Is the Australian subterranean fauna uniquely diverse?. Invertebr. Syst. 24, 407–418 (2011).
2. Gonzalez, B. C., Iliffe, T. M., Macalady, J. L., Schaperdoth, I. & Kakuk, B. Microbial hotspots in anchialine blue holes: initial discoveries from the Bahamas. Hydrobiologia 677, 149–156 (2011).
3. Gibert, J. & Deharveng, L. Subterranean ecosystems: a truncated functional biodiversity: This article emphasizes the truncated nature of subterranean biodiversity at both the bottom (no primary producers) and the top (very few strict predators) of food webs and discusses the implic. Bioscience 52, 473–481 (2002).
4. Moldovan, O. T. An overview on the aquatic cave fauna. in Cave Ecology 173–194 (Springer, 2018).
5. Adams, M. & Humphreys, W. F. Patterns of genetic diversity within selected subterranean fauna of the Cape Range peninsula, Western Australia: systematic and biogeographic implications. Rec. West. Aust. Museum Suppl. 45, 145–164 (1993).
Cited by
14 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献