Patterns of population genetic variation in sympatric chiltoniid amphipods within a calcrete aquifer reveal a dynamic subterranean environment.

ABSTRACT: Calcrete aquifers from the Yilgarn region of arid central Western Australia contain an assemblage of obligate groundwater invertebrate species that are each endemic to single aquifers. Fine-scale phylogeographic and population genetic analyses of three sympatric and independently derived species of amphipod (Chiltoniidae) were carried out to determine whether there were common patterns of population genetic structure or evidence for past geographic isolation of populations within a single calcrete aquifer. Genetic diversity in amphipod mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene) and allozymes were examined across a 3.5 km(2) region of the Sturt Meadows calcrete, which contains a grid of 115 bore holes (=wells). Stygobiont amphipods were found to have high levels of mitochondria

SUBMITTER: Bradford TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3692312 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature