Global molecular phylogeography reveals persistent Arctic circumpolar isolation in a marine planktonic protist

The high-latitude planktonic foraminifera have proved to be particularly useful model organisms for the study of global patterns of vicariance and gene flow in the oceans. Such studies demonstrate that gene flow can occur over enormous distances in the pelagic marine environment leading to cosmopolitanism but also that there are ecological and geographical barriers to gene flow producing biogeographic structure. Here, we have undertaken a comprehensive global study of genetic diversity within a marine protist species, the high-latitude planktonic foraminiferan Neogloboquadrina pachyderma. We present extensive new data sets from the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans that, in combination with our earlier data from the North Atlantic and Southern Oceans, allow us to determine the global phylogeography of this species. The new genetic data reveal a pattern of Arctic circumpolar isolation and bipolar asymmetry between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We show that the ancestry of North Pacific N. pachyderma is relatively recent. It lies within the upwelling systems and subpolar waters of the Southern Hemisphere and remarkably not within the neighboring Arctic Ocean. Instead, the Arctic Ocean population forms a genetic continuum with the North Atlantic population, which became isolated from the southern populations much earlier, after the onset of Northern hemisphere glaciation. Data from the planktonic foraminiferal morphospecies Globigerina bulloides is also introduced to highlight the isolation and endemism found within the subpolar North Pacific gyre. These data provide perspective for interpretation and discussion of global gene flow and speciation patterns in the plankton.