Comparing Sea Anemone Diversity in the Arctic and

AntarcticJustin Buck and Daphne Fautin

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas Natural History

Museum

(http://web.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/Image/)

What is a Sea Anemone?

• Benthic marine animal in the order Actiniaria

• Found at all depths in every ocean in the world

(http://web.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/Image/)

Benthic Animal Diversity Trends

• “The Antarctic has much higher species richness yet lacks the ecological diversity of the Arctic” (Dayton, et al., 1994: p. 90)

Group Antarctic Arctic

Mollusks 875 224

Polychaetes 650 300

Isopoda 299 49

Sponges 300 200

Sea Anemones

? ?

Number of Recorded Benthic Species for Certain Groups in Arctic and Antarctic (Barry & Grebmeier, 1991)

Hexacorallians of the World

• http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/hexacoral/anemone2/index.cfm

• Website created in Daphne Fautin’s lab

Preliminary Data

• More diversity is shown in Arctic than Antarctic

• What will normalizations do to this data?

020406080

100120140160180200

Genera Species

AntarcticArctic

Normalizations

• Area:– Arctic and Antarctic

Oceans

• Effort– Number of

publications– Number of Expeditions

(http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/Hexacoral/expedition/challenger_1872-1876/challenger.html)

(http://www2.kah-bonn.de/1/16/0e.htm)

Area Normalization

020406080

100120140160180200

Genera Species

AntarcticArctic • Used data in latitudinal

ranges from 50º-90º North and South

• The Arctic Ocean is about 1/4th the size of the Antarctic Ocean (Garrison, 1996)

(http://www2.kah-bonn.de/1/16/0e.htm)

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Genera Species

AntarcticArctic

Publication Normalization

• Relationship of genera per publication and species per publication

Expeditions Normalization

• There have been 4 times more expeditions to the Arctic than to the Antarctic

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Genera Species

AntarcticArctic

Summary of Normalizations

• Area – Arctic greater diversity

• Publications – Arctic species greater diversity– Antarctic genera greater diversity

• Expeditions– Antarctic greater diversity

Original descriptions per year

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1758-1790

1791-1820

1821-1850

1851-1880

1881-1910

1911-1940

1941-1970

1971-2005

OriginalDescriptions

Conclusion

• The Arctic seems to be much more diverse than the Antarctic

Group Antarctic Arctic

Mollusks 875 224

Polychaetes 650 300

Isopoda 299 49

Sponges 300 200

Sea Anemones

76 189

Further Study

• Compare diversity of sea anemones in every ocean in the world

• Compare the diversity at different depths as well

Acknowledgments

Suman Kansakar

Ha-Rim Cha Abby Reft

Matt Kost Bryan Tangney Amanda Schmidt

P.E.E.T. Grant