Carter, Hugh F;
(2024)
Global Patterns of Biogeography and Larval Development in the Asteroidea with an Investigation of Diversity in the Deep Sea.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The patterns of species richness that characterise the global benthos are, for the majority of marine taxa, the product of the dual ecological requirements of adult and free living larval stages. Dependant on developmental strategy, and as explored in this thesis, larvae can promote dispersal or restrict range expansion, help sustain toleration of polar waters or diversification in the tropics. Understanding the biogeography of the marine realm requires, therefore, an understanding of how the full suite of larval modes interact to shape the patterns of species ranges observed today. One of the developmentally best studied and most larval strategy diverse clades, found in habitats and across depths throughout the worldwide seafloor, is the echinoderm class Asteroidea (starfish). Yet an understanding of the global distribution of the group is so far lacking outisde of regional shallow water analyses. Compilation and analysis of more than 250,000 occurence records, covering 7,000 m of bathymetric range, reveals complex distributional patterns which vary between hemispheres, oceanic basins and with increasing depth. By interogating the environmental drivers behind such patterns, this study suggests that life is patterned under an energetic framework, in which strong thermal limits restrict diversity regardless of additional factors. To further explore the role of larvae in such patterns, distinct geographic, bathymetric and phylogenetic components of larval development were quantified for the first time at a global scale. These were further used to model reproductive strategy across unknown diversity and suggest that the canonical view of larval development in the clade may need revising. Finally, the intricacies of the free-feeding, freeswimming bipinnaria larvae of the common starfish Asterias rubens were investigated with a panel of neuronal antibodies, uncovering remarkable complexity and conservation in a transient, transitionary form.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Global Patterns of Biogeography and Larval Development in the Asteroidea with an Investigation of Diversity in the Deep Sea |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10193610 |
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