Biodiversity and areas of endemism of benthic hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from southern South America and Antarctica

Abstract

The Southern Ocean has a marine fauna with high degree of diversity and endemism. However, studies on the Antarctic marine biodiversity are still scarce, mainly concerning analyses of geographical distribution and inferences on areas of endemism. Our propose is to search for areas of endemism of the benthic hydroids (Anthoathecata, Leptothecata) fauna from the Patagonian and Antarctic regions, using the comparison between these fauna and the characterization of their geographic distribution as base for the study. For that, observations of museum collections and particular materials will be done, as well as qualitative collections at some areas of the Patagonian region. All material will be identified until the lower taxonomic level possible using the traditional methods for hydroids study. The faunistic analyses will be done by inferences under the faunistic similarity between the sampled locations and by the estimative of the frequency of occurrence of the species or families of benthic hydroids found by latitudinal zone. Analyses of geographical distribution aiming the search for patterns of areas of endemism will be done using two distinct methods: the optimization method through the software NDM-VNDM and the Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE). (AU)