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The Arctic is among the fastest-warming areas of the globe. Understanding the impact of climate change on foundational Arctic marine species is needed to provide insight on ecological resilience at high latitudes. Marine forests, the underwater seascapes formed by seaweeds, are predicted to expand their ranges further north in the Arctic in a warmer climate. Here, we investigated whether northern habitat gains will compensate for losses at the southern range edge by modelling marine forest distributions according to three distribution categories: cryophilic (species restricted to the Arctic environment), cryotolerant (species with broad environmental preferences inclusive but not limited to the Arctic environment), and cryophobic (species restricted to temperate conditions) marine forests. Using stacked MaxEnt models, we predicted the current extent of suitable habitat for contemporary and future marine forests under Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios of increasing emissions (2.6, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5). Our analyses indicate that cryophilic marine forests are already ubiquitous in the north, and thus cannot expand their range under climate change, resulting in an overall loss of habitat due to severe southern range contractions. The extent of marine forests within the Arctic basin, however, is predicted to remain largely stable under climate change with notable exceptions in some areas, particularly in the Canadian Archipelago. Succession may occur where cryophilic and cryotolerant species are extirpated at their southern range edge, resulting in ecosystem shifts towards temperate regimes at mid to high latitudes, though many aspects of these shifts, such as total biomass and depth range, remain to be field validated. Our results provide the first global synthesis of predicted changes to pan-Arctic coastal marine forest ecosystems under climate change and suggest ecosystem transitions are unavoidable now for some areas.

Coastal refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 years ago) have been hypothesized at high latitudes in the North Atlantic, suggesting marine populations persisted through cycles of glaciation and are potentially adapted to local environments. Here, whole-genome sequencing was used to test whether North Atlantic marine coastal populations of the kelp Alaria esculenta survived in the area of southwestern Greenland during the Last Glacial Maximum. We present the first annotated genome for A. esculenta and call variant positions in 54 individuals from populations in Atlantic Canada, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Norway and Ireland. Differentiation across populations was reflected in ~1.9 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, which further revealed mixed ancestry in the Faroe Islands individuals between putative Greenlandic and European lineages. Time-calibrated organellar phylogenies suggested Greenlandic populations were established during the last interglacial period more than 100,000 years ago, and that the Faroe Islands population was probably established following the Last Glacial Maximum. Patterns in population statistics, including nucleotide diversity, minor allele frequencies, heterozygosity and linkage disequilibrium decay, nonetheless suggested glaciation reduced Canadian Atlantic and Greenlandic populations to small effective sizes during the most recent glaciation. Functional differentiation was further reflected in exon read coverage, which revealed expansions unique to Greenland in 337 exons representing 162 genes, and a modest degree of exon loss (103 exons from 56 genes). Altogether, our genomic results provide strong evidence that A. esculenta populations were resilient to past climatic fluctuations related to glaciations and that high-latitude populations are potentially already adapted to local conditions as a result.

The genomic era continues to revolutionize our understanding of the evolution of biodiversity. In phycology, emphasis remains on assembling nuclear and organellar genomes, leaving the full potential of genomic datasets to answer long-standing questions about the evolution of biodiversity largely unexplored. Here, we used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) datasets to survey species diversity in the kelp genus Alaria, compare phylogenetic signals across organellar and nuclear genomes, and specifically test whether phylogenies behave like trees or networks. Genomes were sequenced from across the global distribution of Alaria (including Alaria crassifolia, A. praelonga, A. crispa, A. marginata, and A. esculenta), representing over 550 GB of data and over 2.2 billion paired reads. Genomic datasets retrieved 3,814 and 4,536 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes, respectively, and upwards of 148,542 high-quality nuclear SNPs. WGS revealed an Arctic lineage of Alaria, which we hypothesize represents the synonymized taxon A. grandifolia. The SNP datasets also revealed inconsistent topologies across genomic compartments, and hybridization (i.e., phylogenetic networks) between Pacific A. praelonga, A. crispa, and putative A. grandifolia, and between some lineages of the A. marginata complex. Our analysis demonstrates the potential for WGS data to advance our understanding of evolution and biodiversity beyond amplicon sequencing, and that hybridization is potentially an important mechanism contributing to novel lineages within Alaria. We also emphasize the importance of surveying phylogenetic signals across organellar and nuclear genomes, such that models of mixed ancestry become integrated into our evolutionary and taxonomic understanding.

Organellar genomes serve as useful models for genome evolution and contain some of the most widely used phylogenetic markers, but they are poorly characterized in many lineages. Here, we report 20 novel mitochondrial genomes and 16 novel plastid genomes from the brown algae. We focused our efforts on the orders Chordales and Laminariales but also provide the first plastid genomes (plastomes) from Desmarestiales and Sphacelariales, the first mitochondrial genome (mitome) from Ralfsiales and a nearly complete mitome from Sphacelariales. We then compared gene content, sequence evolution rates, shifts in genome structural arrangements, and intron distributions across lineages. We confirm that gene content is largely conserved in both organellar genomes across the brown algal tree of life, with few cases of gene gain or loss. We further show that substitution rates are generally lower in plastid than mitochondrial genes, but plastomes are more variable in gene arrangement, as mitomes tend to be colinear even among distantly related lineages (with exceptions). Patterns of intron distribution across organellar genomes are complex. In particular, the mitomes of several laminarialean species possess group II introns that have T7-like ORFs, found previously only in mitochondrial genomes of Pylaiella spp. (Ectocarpales). The distribution of these mitochondrial introns is inconsistent with vertical transmission and likely reflects invasion by horizontal gene transfer between lineages. In the most extreme case, the mitome of Hedophyllum nigripes is ∼40% larger than the mitomes of close relatives because of these introns. Our results provide substantial insight into organellar evolution across the brown algae.

Aim: The opening of the Bering Strait initiated significant biotic interchange that is postulated to have played a major role in phylogeographical patterns of northern marine flora and fauna. In addition, the “species pump” hypothesis asserts that glaciation events promoted speciation due to repeated isolation of populations over the past 2.6 million years. Here, trans-Arctic speciation events in red marine macroalgae (Florideophyceae) were assessed using time-calibrated phylogenies, and the applicability of the “species pump” hypothesis was considered. Location: Species records and sequence data for trans-arctic genera of marine macroalgae were amalgamated and supplemented with sampling from the Northwest Atlantic, Northern Alaska (Beaufort Sea), Norway, and Nome, Alaska (Bering Sea; 2014–2017). Methods: Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenies were variously built using the 5′ end of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI-5P), and/or the full-length nuclear internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), and/or the ribulose-1 5-biphosphate carboxylase large subunit gene (rbcL), and nodes were timed using calibrated COI-5P and rbcL molecular clocks. The final dataset represented approximately 184 species, broadly representing 14 trans-arctic lineages. Results: Pacific to Atlantic migration and subsequent speciation was inferred in 11 cases, whereas the opposite scenario, atlantic to pacific, was inferred once; only three speciation events appeared to occur during the Pleistocene. Main conclusions: Our results are in agreement with previous studies in that trans-arctic speciation events postdated the opening of the Bering Strait with a clear pacific to atlantic bias. Evidence for the “species pump” (as applied to trans-arctic interchange) was lacking given the frequency of trans-arctic speciation events was not amplified during the Pleistocene.

Summary Competitive interactions are assumed to play a role in governing species distributions but are difficult to infer using observational data. In addition, morphological identification may overlook species, obscuring patterns of competitive exclusion. To address these limitations, we showcase a molecular (DNA barcoding) approach to species‐unit delineation and sample stream insect communities at small spatial scales where environmental filtering and dispersal limitations are minimised. Rocks from riffles were sampled for stream insects, in particular caddisfly (Trichoptera), beetle (Coleoptera) and blackfly (Simuliidae) larvae from filterer and grazer guilds at White Clay Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (20 June, 2013). Additive partitioning of species diversity was used to establish at which spatial scale(s) variation in the distribution of species occurs; this informed us of the spatial scale at which to conduct checkerboard analyses, which tested for signatures of species segregations (e.g. competitive exclusion). Only a small portion of the total species diversity occurred at the smallest spatial level (mean = 30% on individual rocks). Distributional variation in species was greatest at the kilometre scale (where beta‐diversity was 37% and 41% for filterers and grazers respectively). At the scale of White Clay Creek sampled (c. 3 km extent), species of filterers showed a strong tendency to segregate on individual rocks, while grazers showed random structure approaching aggregation. This study demonstrates a potential approach to assessing the role of competition in structuring communities using observational data and highlights the importance of accurate species units for analysis (e.g. DNA barcoding). Using a combination of analyses, we were able to link patterns of segregation to competitive interactions among stream insect species in a filterer guild, while determining these interactions were not important in a grazer guild.

Dispersal, the movement of an individual away from its natal or breeding ground, has been studied extensively in birds and mammals to understand the costs and benefits of movement behavior. Whether or not invertebrates disperse in response to such attributes as habitat quality or density of conspecifics remains uncertain, due in part to the difficulties in marking and recapturing invertebrates. In the upper Bay of Fundy, Canada, the intertidal amphipod Corophium volutator swims at night around the new or full moon. Furthermore, this species is regionally widespread across a large spatial scale with site-to-site variation in population structure. Such variation provides a backdrop against which biological determinants of dispersal can be investigated. We conducted a large-scale study at nine mudflats, and used swimmer density, sampled using stationary plankton nets, as a proxy for dispersing individuals. We also sampled mud residents using sediment cores over 3 sampling rounds (20-28 June, 10-17 July, 2-11 August 2010). Density of swimmers was most variable at the largest spatial scales, indicating important population-level variation. The smallest juveniles and large juveniles or small adults (particularly females) were consistently overrepresented as swimmers. Small juveniles swam at most times and locations, whereas swimming of young females decreased with increasing mud presence of young males, and swimming of large juveniles decreased with increasing mud presence of adults. Swimming in most stages increased with density of mud residents; however, proportionally less swimming occurred as total mud resident density increased. We suggest small juveniles move in search of C. volutator aggregations which possibly act as a proxy for better habitat. We also suggest large juveniles and small adults move if potential mates are limiting. Future studies can use sampling designs over large spatial scales with varying population structure to help understand the behavioral ec