Biogeography
of free-living heterotrophic flagellates
Over a
twelve year period, information has been gathered on benthic and water column
commmunities of heterotrophic flagellates. We have been trying to establish
if there is a biogeographic component to the distribution of species. We find
most conventional descriptions of protozoan biogeography to be anecdotal - and
often to not make explicit or appropriate allowance for extrinsic elements -
such as differences in taxonomic judgements, undersampling, or the selection
of taxa to be reported. We also feel it is necessary to segregate physiological
from evolutionary causes of patchy distribution. Our studies are characterised
by good documentation of uninterpreted records. See Lee and Patterson (1998)
for more details. They analysed data on the distribution of about 350 species
of heterotrophic flagellates in 31 communities from sites around the world by
the cluster algorithm in the PRIMER package. A modified version of our paper
on the biogeography of flagellates in available here,
as is a powerpoint
talk (dated) about our work.
- Ekebom,
J., Patterson, D.J. and Vørs, N. (1996) Heterotrophic flagellates
from coral reef sediments (Great Barrier Reef, Australia). Archiv für
Protistenkunde, 146: 251-272.
- Larsen,
J. and Patterson, D. J. (1990). Some flagellates (Protista) from tropical
marine sediments. Journal of Natural History, 24: 801-937.
- Lee,
W. J. and Patterson, D. J. (1998). Diversity and geographic distribution
of free-living heterotrophic flagellates-analysis by Primer. Protist, 149:
229-243.
- Lee,
W. J. and Patterson, D.J. (1999). Are communities of heterotrophic flagellates
determined by their geography? In: (eds) W. Ponder and D. Lunney, The Other
99% - The Conservation and Biodiversity of InvertebratesAustralian Zoologist,
Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, pp 232-235.
- Lee,
W. J. and Patterson, D. J. (2000). Heterotrophic flagellates (Protista)
from marine sediments of Botany Bay, Australia. Journal of Natural History34:
483-562.
- Patterson,
D.J. and Lee, W.J. (2000). Geographic distribution and diversity of free-living
heterotrophic flagellates. In: 'The Flagellates" Eds Green, J. and Leadbeater,
B.S.C. Taylor and Francis, 269-287.
