Meeting Abstract
Global climate change has had a profound impact on the health of Antarctic communities, but little is known about the ecosystems in this region. Found within the benthic communities of this area are members of the soft coral genus Thouarella. Few studies have been done to investigate the species richness of this genus in the Antarctic despite these organisms playing an important role in benthic communities and providing habitat for Antarctic annelids. We used a DNA barcoding approach to investigate the biodiversity of Antarctic Thouarella species using mitochondrial DNA sequences. Geographical distributions of identified species were examined to assess differences in distributions among species and population connectivity. This study will provide a better understanding of species-level diversity in Thouarella and population structure around the Antarctic continent.
