Protistan diversity in the Arctic: a case of paleoclimate shaping modern biodiversity?

ABSTRACT:

Background

The impact of climate on biodiversity is indisputable. Climate changes over geological time must have significantly influenced the evolution of biodiversity, ultimately leading to its present pattern. Here we consider the paleoclimate data record, inferring that present-day hot and cold environments should contain, respectively, the largest and the smallest diversity of ancestral lineages of microbial eukaryotes.

Methodology/principal findings

We investigate this hypothesis by analyzing an original dataset of 18S rRNA gene sequences from Western Greenland in the Arctic, and data from the existing literature on 18S rRNA gene diversity in hydrothermal vent, temperate sediments, and anoxic water column communities. Unexpectedly, the community from the cold environmen

SUBMITTER: Stoeck T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1940325 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature