Endemicity and climatic niche differentiation in three marine ciliated protists
Authors
Williams, RichardOwens, Hannah L
Clamp, John
Peterson, A Townsend
Warren, Alan
Martin-Cereceda, Mercedes
Affiliation
Centre for Ecology and Evolution in Microbial Model Systems, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, SwedenBiodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
Department of Genetics, Physiology and Microbiology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Issue Date
2018-07-18
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The biogeographic pattern of single‐celled eukaryotes (protists), including ciliates, is poorly understood. Most marine species are believed to have a relatively high dispersal potential, such that both globally distributed and geographically isolated taxa exist. Primary occurrence data for three large, easily identified ciliate species, Parafavella gigantea, Schmidingerella serrata, and Zoothamnium pelagicum, and environmental data drawn from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's World Ocean Atlas were used to estimate each species’ spatial and environmental distributions using Maxent v3.3.3k. The predictive power of the models was tested with a series of spatial stratification studies, which were evaluated using partial receiver operating characteristic (ROC) statistics. Differences between niches occupied by each taxon were evaluated using background similarity tests. All predictions showed significant ability to anticipate test points. The null hypotheses of niche similarity were rejected in all background similarity tests comparing the niches among the three species. This article provides the first quantitative assessment of environmental conditions associated with three species of ciliates and a first estimate of their spatial distributions in the North Atlantic, which can serve as a benchmark against which to document distributional shifts. These species follow consistent, predictable patterns related to climate and environmental biochemistry; the importance of climatic conditions as regards protist distributions is noteworthy considering the effects of global climate change.Citation
Williams, R.A., et al. (2018). ‘Endemicity and climatic niche differentiation in three marine ciliated protists’. Limnology and Oceanography, 63(6), pp.2727-2736. DOI: 10.1002/lno.11003Journal
Limnology and OceanographyAdditional Links
https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11003Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0024-3590EISSN
1939-5590Collections
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