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

无尾类鱼是南大洋的一个主要鱼类种群。南极洲的祖先诺氏类鱼类可能是一种行动迟缓、生活在海底的波斯形物种，大约4,000万-6,000万年前在当时的南极大陆温带陆架水域进化而来。冰盖在大陆架上的搁浅和营养条件的变化可能已经消除了晚始新世分类学上的多样性，并启动了新类目动物的原始多样化。在南极最高的大陆架上，今天的鱼类在物种多样性、丰度和生物量方面占主导地位，后两者的水平为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无尾类鱼类动物群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是有限的，这主要是因为无法获得和分析亚南极小头类鱼类的标本。北极目亚目的亚南极鱼类对于全面了解其南极近亲的进化、种群动态、生态生理学和生态生物化学至关重要。该项目将支持一次国际合作研究巡航，以收集和研究亚南极栖息地的本土鱼类。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、生化和分子生物学调查；亚南极脊椎动物的基因组资源；过渡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了解这些过程的进化影响提供了令人信服的自然实验室。拟议的工作将有助于形成对这些敏感生态系统的基线理解，据此可以明智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.