Meta-analysis of Antarctic phylogeography reveals strong sampling bias and critical knowledge gaps

Much of Antarctica’s highly endemic terrestrial biodiversity is found in small ice-free patches. Substantial genetic differentiation has been detected among populations across spatial scales. Sampling is, however, often restricted to commonly-accessed sites, and we therefore lack a comprehensive understanding of broad-scale biogeographic patterns, which could impede forecasts of the nature and impacts of future change. Here, we present a synthesis of published genetic studies across terrestrial Antarctica and the broader Antarctic region, aiming to identify current biogeographic patterns, environmental drivers of diversity, and future research priorities. A database of all published genetic research from terrestrial fauna and flora (excl. microbes) across the Antarctic region was constructed. This database was then filtered to focus on the most well-represented taxa and markers (mitochondrial COI for fauna, and nuclear ITS for flora). The final dataset comprised 7222 records, spanning 1...南极地区多数高度特有陆生生物多样性均分布于小型无冰斑块之中。研究已在不同空间尺度的种群间检测到显著的遗传分化。然而采样通常仅局限于易于抵达的采样点，因此我们对大尺度生物地理格局尚缺乏全面认知，这可能会阻碍对未来环境变化的本质与影响进行预测。本研究对南极大陆及更广南极区域已发表的遗传学研究进行综合综述，旨在明确当前的生物地理格局、多样性的环境驱动因子以及未来的研究重点。研究人员构建了涵盖南极区域所有已发表的陆生动植物（不含微生物）遗传学研究的数据库。随后对该数据库进行筛选，聚焦于代表性最强的类群与分子标记：动物类群采用线粒体COI（mitochondrial COI），植物类群采用核ITS（nuclear ITS）。最终数据集共包含7222条记录，覆盖范围涉及1……