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PLoS One
2018 Aug 01;138:e0201269. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201269.
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Variation in species diversity of deep-water megafauna assemblages in the Caribbean across depth and ecoregions.
Hernández-Ávila I
,
Guerra-Castro E
,
Bracho C
,
Rada M
,
Ocaña FA
,
Pech D
.
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Diversity patterns of the deep-sea megafauna in the Caribbean Basin and the Guiana ecoregion were analyzed in order to test the hypothesis of species richness variation as a function of depth and the hypothesis of non-differences between ecoregions by analyzing spatial patterns of five taxa and a merged assemblage. Collections of five taxa (corals, sea stars, sea urchins, sea lilies and gastropods) were obtained from seven oceanographic expeditions aboard the R/V Pillsbury at 310 stations between 60 and 7500 m depth. Data were sorted according to depth zones and ecoregions and were analyzed in order to estimate species richness, changes in species composition and distinction of β-diversity by species turnover or by nestedness. The observed patterns of diversity were consistent between taxa and their assemblage: Species richness increased from the continental shelf (60-200 m deep) to the slope (200-2000 m deep), followed by a decrease at the continental rise-abyssal zone. We detected marked changes in species composition according to depth ranges. Changes in species composition in relation to ecoregions were also detected. In general, the Caribbean Basin lacks important physical barriers, causing high deep-sea ecosystem connectivity; however, variation in composition could be related to changes in environmental conditions associated with productivity and/or continental influences.
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Fig 1. Sampling stations (red dots) along the Caribbean basin and Guiana region.Ecoregions: GA, Greater Antilles; EC, Eastern Caribbean; WC Western Caribbean; SWC, Southwestern Caribbean; SC, Southern Caribbean; Gui, Guiana. Southern locations of the Bahamas were included as Greater Antilles (see methods). Yellow dots are deeper stations not included in ecoregion test, only included in estimation of general diversity below 2000 m depth.
Fig 2. Relationship between numbers of species at each site versus depth and ecoregion.Residual standard errors (RSE) of linear (red) and polynomial models (blue) are shown.
Fig 4. a. Canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP) of ecoregions-depth centroids and mean sampling depth. b. MDS of bootstrap averages of ecoregion-depth centroids for species composition of the merged assemblage for the continental shelf and slope. a. Deep ranges, symbols: red circles, continental shelf; blue triangles, slope; dark blue squares, bathyal; black rhombus, abyssal. Ecoregions: GA, Greater Antilles; EC, Eastern Caribbean; WC, Western Caribbean; SWC, Southwestern Caribbean; SC, Southern Caribbean; Gui, Guianian. b. Ecoregions at the continental shelf (red) and slope (blue). Ecoregions as 4a. Western Caribbean upper continental shelf was omitted due to insufficient data for bootstrapping. The positions of symbols represent the position of centroids per bootstrap, with dark symbols as averages and shaded areas the 95% confidence intervals.
Fig 5. Shade plot and cluster analyses for 60 of the most frequent species based on Whittaker’s Index of Association and its occurrence for each ecoregion-depth.Colors on cells represent the standardized species frequency, during sampling, along ecoregion-depth zone combinations. Top symbols: red circles, continental shelf; blue triangles, slope; dark blue triangles, bathyal; black rhombus, abyssal; gray circle, hadal. Taxa symbols: open triangles, corals; asteriscs, Asteroidea; open circles, Echinoidea; X, Crinoidea; open rhombus, Gastropoda.
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