Molecular Ecology (2009) 18, 5161–5179 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04422.x
The noncosmopolitanism paradigm of freshwater zooplankton: insights from the global phylogeography of the predatory cladoceran Polyphemus pediculus (Linnaeus, 1761) (Crustacea, Onychopoda)
S. XU,* P. D. N. HEBERT,† A. A. KOTOV‡ and M. E. CRISTESCU* *Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada N9B 3P4, †Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1, ‡A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky Prospect 33, Moscow 119071, Russia
Abstract A major question in our understanding of eukaryotic biodiversity is whether small bodied taxa have cosmopolitan distributions or consist of geographically localized cryptic taxa. Here, we explore the global phylogeography of the freshwater cladoceran Polyphemus pediculus (Linnaeus, 1761) (Crustacea, Onychopoda) using two mitochon- drial genes, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16s ribosomal RNA, and one nuclear marker, 18s ribosomal RNA. The results of neighbour-joining and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses reveal an exceptionally pronounced genetic structure at both inter- and intra- continental scales. The presence of well-supported, deeply divergent phylogroups across the Holarctic suggests that P. pediculus represents an assemblage of at least nine, largely allopatric cryptic species. Interestingly, all phylogenetic analyses support the reciprocal paraphyly of Nearctic and Palaearctic clades. Bayesian inference of ancestral distribu- tions suggests that P. pediculus originated in North America or East Asia and that European lineages of Polyphemus were established by subsequent intercontinental dispersal events from North America. Japan and the Russian Far East harbour exceptionally high levels of genetic diversity at both regional and local scales. In contrast, little genetic subdivision is apparent across the formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America, areas that historical demographic analyses suggest that were recolonized just 5500–24 000 years ago.
Keywords: Cladocera, endemism, glacial refugia, intercontinental dispersal, speciation, zoo- plankton Received 7 August 2009; revision received 25 September 2009; accepted 6 October 2009
sizes and strong dispersal abilities of micro-eukaryotes Introduction maintain genetic homogeneity across their broad distri- A major uncertainty in our understanding of biodiver- butions. The freshwater zooplankton represents one sity is whether unicellular and small-bodied taxa have group that was historically thought to be dominated by cosmopolitan distributions or consist of geographically cosmopolitan species. This paradigm of cosmopolitanism structured cryptic taxa. Even less clear is the scale of stemmed from the assumption that the dispersal of these geographic structure, when it exists. The classical cosmo- organisms via the passive transport of resting stages politanism view, the ‘everything is everywhere’ hypoth- through vectors such as waterfowl, wind and water esis (Baas-Becking 1934), holds that the large population currents mediated extensive gene flow (Mayr 1963). Furthermore, the cosmopolitan nature of freshwater Correspondence: Sen Xu, Fax: (519) 971-3616; zooplankton is supported by the observed morphologi- E-mail: [email protected] cal homogeneity among widely separated populations.