Abstract
The world of protists remains largely unexplored. A thorough electron-microscopic investigation of a few microlitres of deep-sea sediment from 2,964 m water depth near the South Sandwich Islands (Southern Ocean) revealed siliceous scales of filose-amoeba protist species, two of which have not been reported previously from Antarctica or from elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. However, all the species are known from other oceans and, in one case, from freshwater habitats. The Antarctic protistan scales belong to four species of filose amoebae: Pinaciophora fluviatilis Greef 1869, Pinaciophora denticulata Thomsen 1978, Pinaciophora multicosta Thomsen 1978 and Rabdiaster reticulata (Thomsen 1979) Mikrjukov 1999 nov. comb. Our study shows that (1) none of the species has been recorded from the Australasian biogeograpical region, (2) Pinaciophora multicosta and Rabdiaster reticulata are new records for the Southern Ocean and for the Southern Hemisphere as a whole, (3) prior to this investigation, Pinaciophora multicosta had been reported once only, from the Baltic Sea (Europe). These results highlight the problem of undersampling in the study of the global distribution of protists.
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Acknowledgments
This is ANDEEP publication number 89. We thank the members of the scientific party, the captain, and crew of RV Polarstern (ANDEEP II cruise), for their help in collecting the samples. Participation of AJG in the ANDEEP II cruise was supported by a grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NER/B/S/2001/00336). The Freshwater Biological Association (UK) is thanked for equipment and for making facilities available to do electron microscopy; the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) for financial support, and Paddy Patterson for information on geographical records of the “heliozoa” and the scale-bearing filose amoebae.
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Esteban, G.F., Gooday, A.J. & Clarke, K.J. Siliceous scales of filose-amoebae (Pompholyxophryidae, Rotosphaerida) from deep Southern Ocean sediments, including first records for the Southern Hemisphere. Polar Biol 30, 945–950 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0280-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0280-4