https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3910-0095
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Abstract
The role of geomorphological features as drivers for benthic deep-sea biodiversity remains poorly understood. By disentangling the putative Haploniscus belyaevi Birstein, Citation1963a species complex from the abysso-hadal Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (KKT) region in the North-west Pacific Ocean, we aim to shed light on deep-sea differentiation and how it is related to potential bathymetric barriers such as the KKT and the Kuril-Island Ridge (KIR). Our integrative taxonomic approach featured morphological and molecular delimitation methods, also considering the post-marsupial development due to pronounced sexual dimorphism. Mitochondrial 16S and COI markers were sequenced and several molecular species delimitation methods were applied. By combining the different results we were able to delineate six distinct species within the belyaevi complex, including several morphologically cryptic species, and found hints of three additional species groups in the complex. Even though several of these species were distributed across the KKT and/or KIR, limited gene flow and depth-differentiation were indicated supporting previous notions that these geomorphological features play a role in deep-sea benthos speciation.
Acknowledgements
All haploniscid specimens analysed within this study were collected and sorted within the framework of the international KuramBio II and SokhoBio projects. The SokhoBio expedition was organized with financial support from the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 14-50-00034). Material sorting was funded by the BMBF (German Ministry of Education and Research) grant 03G0857A to Angelika Brandt, University of Hamburg, now Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. Funding for the KuramBio II expedition was provided by the PTJ (Projektträger Jülich) BMBF grant 03G0250A to Angelika Brandt. Further support for these projects was provided by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (projects 13-04-02144, 16-04-01431), the Council of the President of the Russian Federation (project MK-2599.2013.4), Russian Federation Government grant No 11. G34.31.0010 and a grant of the Presidium of the Far East Branch of RAS (12–I–P30–07). Biogeography and distribution studies were supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Education (Project 14.616.21.0077, ID No. RFMEF161617X0077). Finalizing this paper was possible thanks to the generous financial support of the Johanna Quandt Young Academy at Goethe University. We thank the crews of the RVs Sonne and Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev for their work and help in collecting these samples, as well as all scientists, student helpers and technicians who sorted and managed the collected samples. This is contribution #1 of the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplemental material
Supplemental material for this article can be accessed here: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2022.2099477.
Associate Editor: Dr Xikun Song
