Biodiversity, biogeography, and connectivity of polychaetes in the world's largest marine minerals exploration frontier

Abstract

Aim:The abyssal Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), Pacific Ocean, is an area of commercial importance owing to the growing interest in mining high-grade polymetallic nodules at the seafloor for battery metals. Research into the spatial patterns of faunal diversity, composition, and population connectivity is needed to better understand the ecological impacts of potential resource extraction. Here, a DNA taxonomy approach is used to investigate regional-scale patterns of taxonomic and phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity, and genetic connectivity, of the dominant macrofaunal group (annelids) across a 6 million km 2 region of the abyssal seafloor. Location:The abyssal seafloor (3932-5055 m depth) of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, equatorial Pacific Ocean. Methods:We used a combination of new and published barcode data to study 1866 polychaete specimens using molecular species delimitation. Both phylogenetic and taxonomic alpha and beta diversity metrics were used to analyse spatial patterns of

Taxonomy, phylogeny, and biodiversity of Lumbrineridae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from the Central Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone

“…Further, specimens of Lumbrinerides cf. laubieri (NHM_0020) were very abundant in CCZ samples, making them a candidate for future ecological, biogeographical and population genetics studies (see Stewart et al 2023 ). On the other hand, Augeneria bidens to which CCZ species Augeneria sp.…”

“…Lumbrinerids are abundant globally and numerous within CCZ samples taken over the last 30 years, and they are a potential useful indicator taxon due to their recognisability and high abundance. For example, some species within Lumbrineridae may be able to act as environmental indicators of disturbance ( Borowski and Thiel 1998 ; Giangrande et al 2005 ) or models for estimates of population connectivity ( Stewart et al 2023 ). They are also bioturbators and important prey ( Zanol et al 2021 ).…”

Checklist of newly-vouchered annelid taxa from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean, based on morphology and genetic delimitation

“…This has two major advantages: firstly, it enables future taxonomic work with better materials to use and to link to these data and potentially describe more of these specimens; secondly, it provides openly available data on the actual species hypotheses used to support ecological papers describing the biodiversity of the CCZ ( Rabone et al 2023b ), which clearly suffer from a lack of quality control in the specimen identifications available, as has been recently acknowledged ( Bianchi and Gonçalves 2021 , Washburn et al 2021 ). This checklist also provides supporting data to Stewart et al (2023) describing the biodiversity and connectivity of annelids across the entire eastern CCZ region.…”