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Abstract

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are amongst the most abundant animals on Earth, with a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean. Genetic and genomic studies have failed to detect any population structure for the species, suggesting a single panmictic population. However, the hyper‐abundance of krill slows the rate of genetic differentiation, masking potential underlying structure. Here we use high‐throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes to show that krill bacterial epibiont communities exhibit spatial structuring, driven mainly by distance rather than environmental factors, especially for strongly krill‐associated bacteria. Estimating the ecological processes driving bacterial community turnover indicated this was driven by bacterial dispersal limitation increasing with geographic distance. Furthermore, divergent epibiont communities generated from a single krill swarm split between aquarium tanks under near identical conditions suggests physical isolation in itself can cause krill‐associated bacterial communities to diverge. Our findings show that Antarctic krill‐associated bacterial communities are geographically structured, in direct contrast with the lack of structure observed for krill genetic and genomic data.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Clarke, LJ and Suter, L and King, R and Bissett, A and Bestley, S and Deagle, BE
Keywords:	Antarctic krill, microbiomes, Kerguelen plateau, Southern Ocean, population connectivity
Journal or Publication Title:	Molecular Ecology
Publisher:	Blackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN:	0962-1083
DOI / ID Number:	10.1111/mec.15771
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Related URLs:	Google Scholar: Clarke, LJ UTAS Profile: Clarke, LJ Google Scholar: Bestley, S UTAS Profile: Bestley, S
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