Meeting Abstract

33.4  Friday, Jan. 4  A molecular perspective on galatheoid biodiversity at deep-sea coral and cold seep habitats in the northwest Atlantic Ocean MORRISON, C.L.*; NIZINSKI, M.S.; USGS-BRD Leetown Science Center, Aquatic Ecology Branch, Kearneysville, WV; NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service National Systematics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC cmorrison@usgs.gov

Recent surveys using submersibles and ROVs have collected a diverse assemblage of galatheids and chirostylids associated with deep coral banks (off southeastern United States and north-central Gulf of Mexico), and cold seeps (Gulf of Mexico) in the western Atlantic. As a complement to ongoing taxonomic and ecological studies of these species, DNA sequence data (COI, 16S, 18S) were generated for barcoding and to elucidate phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, the evolutionary history of western North Atlantic species was put into context with better characterized Pacific species, allowing for comparisons of relationships between species collected at different habitat types, depths, and ocean basins. Based upon phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial COI data, a new species of Munidopsis from deep Lophelia pertusa coral sites had a basal placement and was distantly related to Munidopsis species from hydrothermal vents. Additionally, a Gulf of Mexico cold seep Munidopsis species was most similar to a recently described eastern Pacific non-vent species. Analyses of COI and 16S mitochondrial data identified two monophyletic clades containing chirostylid taxa; one clade included three species of Eumunida (one western Atlantic and two Indo-Pacific), and the other clade contained several western Atlantic Gastroptychus and Uroptychus species. Our results indicate that the galatheoid fauna of deep coral and cold seep sites in the northwestern Atlantic are comprised of both species with close relationships to widespread species groups, suggestive of faunal connections, as well as genetically unique lineages.