Macaronesian diversification: Potential isolation of benthic marine protists on seamounts and islands

到目前为止，在海洋中发现的所有基因类型中，异养原生生物占了大多数。即使在今天，我们对导致这种巨大多样性的过程的了解也非常有限。研究生命树底部的进化过程是保护海洋生物多样性和了解物种形成及其潜在机制的基础。我们在亚速尔群岛和深海盆地的初步工作表明，与深海群落相比，潮下/半深海底栖原生动物群落的物种组成存在显着差异。该项目申请的目的是增加远离亚速尔群岛的两个大西洋岛屿--马德拉岛和桑托港--半深海区域的重要比较数据，这是由于一艘深海潜艇在其存在意愿的最后一年提供了参加两次探险的特殊提议。它只需要潜水费用和一些额外的排序和运输费用。利用养殖技术和分子研究，我们想要检验这样一个假设，即几种海底海山/岛屿原生动物物种在地理上是孤立的，这可能有助于物种形成，类似于已知的后生动物。

Heterotrophic protists make up the majority of all genotypes discovered to date in the ocean. Even today, our understanding of the processes that led to this enormous diversity is very limited. The study of evolutionary processes at the base of the tree of life is fundamental to conserving ocean biodiversity and understanding speciation and the underlying mechanisms. Our preliminary work from the Azores archipelago and deep-sea basins indicated that there are significant differences in species composition between sublittoral/bathyal benthic protist communities compared to deep-sea communities. The aim of the project application is to add important comparative data from the bathyal region of two Atlantic islands distant from the Azores - Madeira and Porto Santo - which is made possible by an exceptional offer of participation in two expeditions with a deep-sea submarine in the last year of its existence will. It would 'only' require the diving cost and some additional cost for sequencing and transport. Using cultivation techniques and molecular studies, we want to test the hypothesis that several benthic seamount/island protozoan species are geographically isolated and this may contribute to speciation similar to what is known for metazoans.