Zoogeography of intertidal communities in the West Indian Ocean as determined by ocean circulation systems: patterns from the Tetraclita barnacles.

ABSTRACT: The Indian Ocean is the least known ocean in the world with the biogeography of marine species in the West Indian Ocean (WIO) understudied. The hydrography of WIO is characterized by four distinct oceanographic systems and there were few glacial refugia formations in the WIO during the Pleistocene. We used the widely distributed intertidal barnacle Tetraclita to test the hypothesis that the distribution and connectivity of intertidal animals in the WIO are determined by the major oceanographic regime but less influenced by historical events such as Pleistocene glaciations. Tetraclita were studied from 32 locations in the WIO. The diversity and distribution of Tetraclita species in the Indian Ocean were examined based on morphological examination and sequence divergence of two mitochondrial

SUBMITTER: Tsang LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3443201 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature