High genetic variation and phylogeographic relations among Palearctic fairy shrimp populations reflect persistence in multiple southern refugia during Pleistocene ice ages and postglacial colonisation

Intense anthropogenic disturbance threatens temporary pond ecosystems and their associated fauna across the Palearctic. Since fairy shrimps (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) are endemic to temporary ponds, populations are declining due to habitat loss and it is important to define adequate units for conserv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Freshwater biology Vol. 64; no. 11; pp. 1896 - 1907
Main Authors:	Lukić, Dunja, Waterkeyn, Aline, Rabet, Nicolas, Mioduchowska, Monika, Geudens, Bernard, Vanschoenwinkel, Bram, Brendonck, Luc, Pinceel, Tom
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-11-2019 Wiley
Subjects:	Anthropogenic factors Aquatic crustaceans Batrisodes schaefferi Biodiversity Biodiversity and Ecology Biological evolution Colonization Conservation Cryptic species Decapoda Deoxyribonucleic acid Dispersal DNA Ecological conditions Ecosystem disturbance Endemic species Environmental Sciences Evolution freshwater Genetic distance Genetic diversity Glaciation habitat destruction Habitat loss Haplotypes Ice ages Intermittent lakes Life Sciences Mitochondria molecular clock Phylogeny Phylogeography Pleistocene Ponds Populations Populations and Evolution Refugia Regions Shrimps Temporary ponds dispersal molecular clock temporary ponds freshwater habitat destruction
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Summary:	Intense anthropogenic disturbance threatens temporary pond ecosystems and their associated fauna across the Palearctic. Since fairy shrimps (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) are endemic to temporary ponds, populations are declining due to habitat loss and it is important to define adequate units for conservation. Phylogeographic reconstructions, based on genetic variation, provide valuable information for defining evolutionary and conservation units, especially for organisms with high levels of cryptic diversity like many fairy shrimps. We studied a total of 152 individuals of the fairy shrimp Branchipus schaefferi from 79 populations across the Palearctic and used mitochondrial (CO1) and nuclear (ITS1) DNA data to reconstruct the phylogeography of the species. Our results show that B. schaefferi comprises four highly diverged (10.3–16.5%) evolutionary clades. The present‐day haplotypes within each of the clades probably diverged from lineages that were maintained in separate refugia during the Pleistocene ice ages. While two clades represent distinct geographic regions, the two remaining clades have more wide and overlapping ranges. In addition, the limited number of shared haplotypes among populations from geographically distant regions within three of the clades suggest recent long‐distance dispersal events. Overall, the studied B. schaefferi dataset comprises high levels of genetic differentiation, without a clear morphological signal. Phylogenetic searches and pairwise genetic distances suggest that the studied lineages belong to a complex of four morphologically cryptic species. Since these four evolutionary old clades persist (±2 million years), despite overlapping geographic ranges and since they span a variety of ecological conditions, they should be considered as separate evolutionary significant units for conservation.
ISSN:	0046-5070 1365-2427
DOI:	10.1111/fwb.13380