ANTARCTIC SHELF AS A SPECIES FLOCKS GENERATOR – ANTFLOCKS

Species flocks have physical features as isolation, age, depth. The Antarctic shelf has been described as exhibiting those physical parameters. However, this hypothesis remains to be tested biologically. How many phylogenetically independent benthic taxa exhibit species flocks? Species flocks have biological characteristics: monophyly of the « species flock »; species diversity; ecological and morphological diversity; habitat dominance, highly endemic fauna. The project is aimed to estimate these parameters for four independent –taxonomically distant- groups: notothenioid teleosts, crinoid echinoderms, echinoid echinoderms, crustaceans. The analysis of these parameters involves Inventory facilities: field cruises, species identification, collections, population sampling for barcoding approaches, the use and the filling of databases; phylogeography and molecular phylogeny samplings and facilities; habitat modelling and ecological characterization in order to estimate the level of ecological diversity produced by the putative species flock; comparative data between the Antarctic shelf and surrounding non-Antarctic benthic areas, for instance sub-Antarctic area like the Kerguelen Plateau in one hand, and a chosen tropical area on the other hand. The four taxa all include three levels of time/taxonomic investigation: small, medium and large. This project is labelled 'International Polar Year' and involves several cruise chief scientists.