International Collaborative Expedition to Collect and Study Fish Indigenous to Sub-Antarctic Habitats

Notothenioid鱼是南大洋的主要鱼类。南极洲的祖先Notothenioid鱼类种群可能是一种行动迟缓的底栖鲈形鱼类，大约在4000万至6000万年前在南极大陆当时的温带大陆架沃茨进化而来。大陆架上的冰盖的接地和不断变化的营养条件可能已经消除了始新世晚期动物群的分类多样性，并开始了最初的多样性。在高南极大陆架上，今天在物种多样性、丰度和生物量方面，背thenioids占鱼类区系的主导地位，后两者占90- 95%。自1957-58年国际地球物理年以来，南极条约国家的鱼类生物学家在了解南极寒冷海洋生态系统中的南极鱼类区系方面取得了令人印象深刻的进展。然而，将这项工作纳入更广泛的海洋背景一直受到限制，主要是由于缺乏对南极次南极的notothenioid鱼类标本的访问和分析。亚南极鱼类的南极鱼亚目的进化，种群动态，生态生理学和生态生物化学的完整的理解是至关重要的。该项目将支持一次国际合作研究航行，以收集和研究亚南极生境的土著鱼类。国际研究小组的研究计划包括系统学和进化研究;生活史战略和种群动态;主要器官和组织系统的生理、生物化学和分子生物学研究;亚南极Notothenioids的基因组资源;过渡性底栖无脊椎动物的生态研究。在一个正在经历全球气候变化、生物多样性丧失和海洋渔业枯竭的世界中，南极、亚南极及其生物群为理解这些过程的进化影响提供了引人注目的自然实验室。拟议的工作将有助于发展对这些敏感生态系统的基线了解，据此可以审慎地评估物种分布和生存的未来变化。

Notothenioid fish are a major group of fish in the Southern Ocean. The ancestral notothenioid fish stock of Antarctica probably arose as a sluggish, bottom-dwelling perciform species that evolved some 40-60 million years ago in the then temperate shelf waters of the Antarctic continent. The grounding of the ice sheet on the continental shelf and changing trophic conditions may have eliminated the taxonomically diverse late Eocene fauna and initiated the original diversification of notothenioids. On the High Antarctic shelf, notothenioids today dominate the ichthyofauna in terms of species diversity, abundance and biomass, the latter two at levels of 90-95%. Since the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, fish biologists from the Antarctic Treaty nations have made impressive progress in understanding the notothenioid ichthyofauna of the cold Antarctic marine ecosystem. However, integration of this work into the broader marine context has been limited, largely due to lack of access to, and analysis of, specimens of Sub-Antarctic notothenioid fishes. Sub-Antarctic fishes of the notothenioid suborder are critical for a complete understanding of the evolution, population dynamics, eco-physiology, and eco-biochemistry of their Antarctic relatives. This project will support an international, collaborative research cruise to collect and study fish indigenous to sub-antarctic habitats. The topics included in the research plans of the international team of researchers includes Systematics and Evolutionary Studies; Life History Strategies and Population Dynamics; Physiological, Biochemical, and Molecular Biological Investigations of Major Organ and Tissue Systems; Genomic Resources for the Sub-Antarctic Notothenioids; and Ecological Studies of Transitional Benthic Invertebrates. In a world that is experiencing changes in global climate, the loss of biological diversity, and the depletion of marine fisheries, the Antarctic, Sub-Antarctic, and their biota offer compelling natural laboratories for understanding the evolutionary impacts of these processes. The proposed work will contribute to development of a baseline understanding of these sensitive ecosystems, one against which future changes in species distribution and survival may be evaluated judiciously.