@article {3881, title = {Is the species flock concept operational? The Antarctic shelf case.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e68787}, abstract = {

There has been a significant body of literature on species flock definition but not so much about practical means to appraise them. We here apply the five criteria of Eastman and McCune for detecting species flocks in four taxonomic components of the benthic fauna of the Antarctic shelf: teleost fishes, crinoids (feather stars), echinoids (sea urchins) and crustacean arthropods. Practical limitations led us to prioritize the three historical criteria (endemicity, monophyly, species richness) over the two ecological ones (ecological diversity and habitat dominance). We propose a new protocol which includes an iterative fine-tuning of the monophyly and endemicity criteria in order to discover unsuspected flocks. As a result nine {\guillemotleft} full {\guillemotright} species flocks (fulfilling the five criteria) are briefly described. Eight other flocks fit the three historical criteria but need to be further investigated from the ecological point of view (here called "core flocks"). The approach also shows that some candidate taxonomic components are no species flocks at all. The present study contradicts the paradigm that marine species flocks are rare. The hypothesis according to which the Antarctic shelf acts as a species flocks generator is supported, and the approach indicates paths for further ecological studies and may serve as a starting point to investigate the processes leading to flock-like patterning of biodiversity.

}, keywords = {Animals, Antarctic Regions, Biodiversity, Biological Evolution, Ecology, Ecosystem, Fishes, Population Density}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0068787}, author = {Lecointre, Guillaume and Ameziane, Nadia and Boisselier, Marie-Catherine and Bonillo, C{\'e}line and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Busson and Causse, Romain and Chenuil, Anne and Couloux, Arnaud and Coutanceau, Jean-Pierre and Cruaud, Corinne and d{\textquoteright}Acoz, C{\'e}dric d{\textquoteright}Udekem and De Ridder, Chantal and Denys, Ga{\"e}l and Dettai, Agn{\`e}s and Guy Duhamel and Eleaume, Marc and Feral, Jean-Pierre and Gallut, Cyril and Havermans, Charlotte and Held, Christoph and Hemery, Lena{\"\i}g and Lautr{\'e}dou, Anne-Claire and Martin, Patrick and Ozouf-Costaz, Catherine and Pierrat, Benjamin and Patrice Pruvost and Puillandre, Nicolas and Samadi, Sarah and Sauc{\`e}de, Thomas and Schubart, Christoph and David, Bruno} }