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The changing form of Antarctic biodiversity

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Abstract

Antarctic biodiversity is much more extensive, ecologically diverse and biogeographically structured than previously thought. Understanding of how this diversity is distributed in marine and terrestrial systems, the mechanisms underlying its spatial variation, and the significance of the microbiota is growing rapidly. Broadly recognizable drivers of diversity variation include energy availability and historical refugia. The impacts of local human activities and global environmental change nonetheless pose challenges to the current and future understanding of Antarctic biodiversity. Life in the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean is surprisingly rich, and as much at risk from environmental change as it is elsewhere.

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Figure 1: The Antarctic region is neither as isolated nor as depauperate in biodiversity as once thought.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Australian Research Council grants DP140102815 to S.L.C. and DP150103017 to M.A.M., an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Fellowship DE140101715 to C.I.F., grants from the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, New Zealand Marsden Fund and the US National Science Foundation to S.C.C., and emeritus support from the British Antarctic Survey to A.C. We thank D. J. Marshall, C. Lee and H. W. Morgan for comments that improved the work.

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S.L.C., S.C.C. and M.A.M. conceived the work; C.I.F conceptualized and drew the figures; all authors contributed equally to the planning and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Steven L. Chown.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chown, S., Clarke, A., Fraser, C. et al. The changing form of Antarctic biodiversity. Nature 522, 431–438 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14505

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