title: MARINE-DERIVED DINOFLAGELLATES IN ANTARCTIC SALINE LAKES: COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND ANNUAL DYNAMICS(1) *[link].
abstract: The saline lakes of the Vestfold Hills in Antarctica offer a remarkable natural laboratory where the adaptation of planktonic protists to a range of evolving physiochemical conditions can be investigated. This study illustrates how an ancestral marine community has undergone radical simplification leaving a small number of well-adapted species. Our objective was to investigate the species composition and annual dynamics of dinoflagellate communities in three saline Antarctic lakes. We observed that dinoflagellates occur year-round despite extremely low PAR during the southern winter, which suggests significant mixotrophic or heterotrophic activity. Only a small number of dominant dinoflagellate species were found in each lake, in contrast to the species-rich Southern Ocean from which the lake communities are believed to be derived. We verified that the lake species were representatives of the marine polar dinoflagellate community, and not freshwater species. Polarella glacialis Montresor, Procaccini et Stoecker, a bipolar marine species, was for the first time described in a lake habitat and was an important phototrophic component in the higher salinity lakes. In the brackish lakes, we found a new sibling species to the brackish-water species Scrippsiella hangoei (J. Schiller) J. Larsen, previously observed only in the Baltic Sea.
authors.affiliation: Limnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenInstitute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKLimnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenEnvironmental Science Department, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UKDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 Copenhagen K., Denmark.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rengefors
authors.affiliation: Limnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenInstitute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKLimnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenEnvironmental Science Department, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UKDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 Copenhagen K., Denmark.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laybourn-Parry
authors.affiliation: Limnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenInstitute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKLimnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenEnvironmental Science Department, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UKDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 Copenhagen K., Denmark.
authors.forename: Ramiro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Logares
authors.affiliation: Limnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenInstitute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKLimnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenEnvironmental Science Department, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UKDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 Copenhagen K., Denmark.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: Limnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenInstitute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKLimnology, Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, S-22362 Lund, SwedenEnvironmental Science Department, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UKDepartment of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 Copenhagen K., Denmark.
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hansen
keywords: Antarctica; Polarella glacialis; Scrippsiella hangoei; cold-water dinoflagellates; dinoflagellate dynamics; polar; saline lakes