Bryozoa connectivity along the Atlantic-Mediterranean region

Knowledge about the species diversity, their distribution and their genetic variation is fundamental to address species conservation and management strategies. During this project we will focus in the European Atlantic-Mediterranean coast to give answer to different questions about these topics. This region could be considered one of the most studied areas in the world but still with big gaps in the knowledge of the process that affect to the species distribution and their genetic variability, particularly to sessile invertebrates with low dispersal capacity. These invertebrates are very important in the formation of different habitats. In the particular case of the Mediterranean, besides, it is considered one of the most diverse seas on the Earth in terms of animal and plant diversity; but in turn it is severely threatened by anthropogenic activities (pollution, species extraction, habitat degradation, lost and altered native diversity, etc.). To try understand the process that affect to the distribution and the genetic variability of sessile invertebrates and the relation of this diversity and variability between them and with abiotic components of the habitats, in this project the use of the bryozoans as a model organism is proposed. Bryozoans are colonial, filter-feeding animals that live attached to hard or ephemeral substrates, or are rooted within loose sediment. They are most abundant and speciose between the subtidal and the shelf edge, occasionally forming rigid 3D-structures that provide habitats for a wide range of other organisms. Around 600 species of bryozoans are currently known from the European Atlantic- Mediterranean region that which corresponds to around 10% of the overall bryozoan fauna known to date: 6000 bryozoans species. The larva has a very short life with a very limited dispersal capacity (centimetres to few kilometres). Thus, analysing the geographic distribution and genetic variability of bryozoans at the species level will provide spatial patterns with a high resolution, which allow tracing flow regimes of currents as well as evolutionary histories. Three main objectives are proposed in the project: 1) to investigate the distribution of the genetic diversity and assess population differentiation and connectivity of several species of bryozoans; 2) to evaluate the patterns of bryozoan diversity in order to compare them with the genetic diversity and abiotic data; 3) to investigate species- genetic diversity correlation, adopting a multi-species approach to provide a broad view on community assembly processes. To collect the necessary data, sampling campaigns will be organized along the study area, using mainly diving techniques to collect specimens of bryozoans and to characterize the communities, habitat types and substrate. Data will be analyzed from a biogeographic point of view to detected patterns of distribution. And new generation methods will be used to study the genetic diversity.