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