Most efforts at improving accuracy in phylogenomic reconstructions have focused on improving tree‐building methods or orthology determination. Even though the use of whole genome sequence or transcriptome data is increasing, the degree to which accurate genome assembly and annotation influence phylogenetic inference has not been well explored. Here, we use low‐coverage whole genome sequencing of spionid annelids to explore the...

The Southern Ocean’s continental shelf communities harbor high benthic biodiversity. However, most census methods have relied on trawling or dredging rather than direct observation. Benthic photographic and videographic transect surveys serve a key role in characterizing marine communities’ abundance and diversity, and they also provide information on the spatial arrangement of species within a community. To investigate divers...

Aim Polyploids have been theorized to occur more frequently in environments that are subjected to severe conditions or sudden disruptions. Here we test the expectation that polyploid taxa occur more frequently in extreme or disrupted environments than their diploid counterparts, whether due to increased adaptive potential, environmental resilience or cross‐ploidy competition. Location South America. Taxon All frog genera in th...

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in 2010, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was established to improve society’s ability to understand, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems. This article provides a high-level overview of the major outcomes of the scientific work undertaken by GoMRI. This initiative contributed...

Gulf of Mexico (GOM) ecosystems are interconnected by numerous physical and biological processes. After the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, these ecological processes facilitated dispersal of oil-spill toxicants or were damaged and broken. A considerable portion of post-DWH research focused on higher levels of biological organization (i.e., populations, communities, and ecosystems) spanning at least four environments (onshor...

Following the Deepwater Horizon blowout, oil, degraded oil, oil mixed with dispersants, and management responses to the spill affected a variety of Gulf of Mexico organisms. This review provides examples of various documented impacts, common patterns, and trends across organisms and/or their environments, and discusses future implications as well as directions for future research. Organism effects are generally characterized a...

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill represents one of the most damaging environmental catastrophes of our generation. It contaminated vast areas of the open ocean, the deep sea, and the shoreline of the Gulf region and disrupted its ecosystems, with both residual and long-term impacts. At the core of all of these ecosystems are microbial communities that perform essential biogeochemical processes and ecosystem services such as car...

From the outset of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, scientists from many different sectors (e.g., government, industry, academia, independent) sprang into action to establish appropriate experimental procedures, collect essential samples, and gather meaningful data. The scale of the spill and the unprecedented use of dispersants challenged scientists familiar with oil spill research, but also drew in many scientists new...

Clitellata is a major clade of Annelida comprising nearly all freshwater and terrestrial annelids as well as several marine species. We investigated clitellate phylogenetic relationships using transcriptomes sampled from 74 taxa (64 clitellates and 10 polychaetes), including multiple representatives of nearly all major clitellate higher taxa (Branchiobdellida, Capilloventridae, Crassiclitellata, Enchytraeidae, Haplotaxidae, Hi...

Nereididae comprises a diverse group of marine worms and is one of the most studied families in Annelida. However, phylogenetic relationships within the group are still poorly understood. Previous studies, based on morphological data, have disagreed on the membership of recognized subfamilies and, current taxonomy lacks sufficient phylogenetic underpinning. This study uses complete mitochondrial genome and transcriptome data t...

A goal of taxonomy is to employ a method of classification based on phylogeny that captures the morphological and genetic diversity of organismal lineages. However, morphological and genetic diversity may not always be concordant, leading to challenges in systematics. The scale worm Polyeunoa laevis has been hypothesized to represent a species complex based on morphology, although there is little knowledge of its genetic diver...

Whale falls are important environments contributing to biodiversity, connectivity and evolutionary novelty in deep-sea ecosystem. Notwithstanding, most of this knowledge is based in studies from NE Pacific basin. Interestingly, the only known natural whale fall on the SW Atlantic has faunal composition affinities with carcasses from other deep-ocean basins. In this carcass, annelid worms belonging to Hesionidae are abundant an...

Within riverine systems, headwater populations are hypothesized to harbour higher amounts of genetic distinctiveness than populations in the main stem of a river and display increased genetic diversity in large, downstream habitats. However, these hypotheses were mostly developed with insects and fish, and they have not been tested on many invertebrate lineages. Pleuroceridae gastropods are of particular ecological importance...

Deep‐sea tubeworms (Annelida, Siboglinidae) represent dominant species in deep‐sea chemosynthetic communities (e.g. hydrothermal vents and cold methane seeps) and occur in muddy sediments and organic falls. Siboglinids lack a functional digestive tract as adults, and they rely on endosymbiotic bacteria for energy, making them of evolutionary and physiological interest. Despite their importance, inferred evolutionary history of...