Traceability Approaches for Marine Genetic Resources Under the Proposed Ocean (BBNJ) Treaty

FUNDING The open access fee was funded by the Griffith University Queensland. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to thank Aurélie Lécolier and Sylvia Colliec Jouault at IFREMER for information on Deepsane; Marjo Vierros for providing information hydrothermal vent patents from ABNJ, and Charles Lawson for providing comments on the manuscript. The cartoon figures used in Figures 1, 6 are from the Noun Project (DNA by Vectors Point, coral by Nook Fulloption, liquid by Smalllike, database by Flatart, third party by Priyanka, drug by Adindar, label by AB Designs, certificate by Libertetstudio, aeroplane by Deepz, car by Adrien Coquet, dolly by Vectorstall, box by IconMark, factory by Iconsphere, and barcode by Adned Kadri).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Abyssal fauna of polymetallic nodule exploration areas, eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean: Annelida: Spionidae and Poecilochaetidae

This paper represents a continuation of taxonomic publications on the benthic fauna of polymetallic nodule fields in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) using material collected during baseline environmental survey work targeting two exploration contract areas (“UK-1” and “OMS”) and one Area of Particular Environmental Interest, “APEI-6.” Families Poecilochaetidae Hannerz, 1956 and Spionidae Grube, 1850 of the annelid suborder Spioniformia were studied here. Taxonomic data are presented for 25 species from 98 records as identified by a combination of morphological and genetic approaches. Although sub-optimal morphological condition can prevent new species being formally described, it is essential that morphological, molecular, and voucher data are made available for future surveys. Descriptions of two new species—Poecilochaetus brenkei sp. nov. and Laonice shulseae sp. nov.—increase the number of formally described new annelid species from the areas targeted in this study to 15 and CCZ-wide to 46. We also discuss the commonly reported “cosmopolitan” deep-sea spionid Aurospio dibranchiata Maciolek, 1981, which we show represents several genetically distinct species (three of these from CCZ area alone) but without reliable morphological characters to separate them. Molecular data provide evidence that 15 out of 25 species reported here have a wide distribution within the eastern CCZ and that Aurospio sp. “NHM_2186” and the known species Prionospio amarsupiata Neal & Altamira in Paterson et al. 2016 may be cosmopolitan. Lastly, the molecular data provide insights into relationships within Spioniformia, suggesting that both Poecilochaetidae and Trochochaetidae belong within Spionidae.publishedVersio

Abyssal fauna of the UK-1 polymetallic nodule exploration area, Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean: Mollusca

The file attached is the Published/publisher’s pdf version of the article. This is an OpenAccess article.Copyright Helena Wiklund et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Bringing access and benefit sharing into the digital age

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of their affiliated institutions. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (#31003A_172977) and the Research Foundation (FWO) Flanders (grant n°12X8318N).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Taxonomy, phylogeny, and biodiversity of Lumbrineridae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from the Central Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone

The DNA taxonomy of six species of the annelid family Lumbrineridae collected from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Central Pacific, an area of potential mining interest for polymetallic nodules, is presented. Lumbrinerids are an ecologically important and understudied annelid family within the deep sea, with many species still undescribed. This study aims to document the taxonomy and biodiversity of the CCZ using specimens collected from the UK-1, OMS, and NORI-D exploration contract areas and Areas of Particular Environmental Interest. Species were identified through a combination of morphological and molecular phylogenetic analysis. We present informal species descriptions associated with voucher specimens, accessible through the Natural History Museum (London) collections, to improve future taxonomic and biodiversity studies of this region. Five taxa in this study had no morphological or genetic matches within the literature and therefore are possibly new to science, but their suboptimal morphological preservation prevented the formalisation of new species. The most abundant taxon Lumbrinerides cf. laubieri (NHM_0020) was compared with the holotype of Lumbrinerides laubieri Miura, 1980 from the deep Northeast Atlantic. Currently no reliable morphological characters separating the Pacific and Atlantic specimens have been found and molecular data from the Atlantic specimens was not available.publishedVersio

Genomic evidence of contemporary hybridization between Schistosoma species

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 206194); the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for International Development, the Economic & Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory, under the Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock Systems (ZELS) programme (grant number BB/L018985/1 to JPW and MS and grant number BB/S013822/1 to JPW, MS and NDD). FA, AE and MR received funding from the Wellcome Trust (grant number 104958/Z/14/Z).Hybridization between different species of parasites is increasingly being recognised as a major public and veterinary health concern at the interface of infectious diseases biology, evolution, epidemiology and ultimately control. Recent research has revealed that viable hybrids and introgressed lineages between Schistosoma spp. are prevalent across Africa and beyond, including those with zoonotic potential. However, it remains unclear whether these hybrid lineages represent recent hybridization events, suggesting hybridization is ongoing, and/or whether they represent introgressed lineages derived from ancient hybridization events. In human schistosomiasis, investigation is hampered by the inaccessibility of adult-stage worms due to their intravascular location, an issue which can be circumvented by post-mortem of livestock at abattoirs for Schistosoma spp. of known zoonotic potential. To characterise the composition of naturally-occurring schistosome hybrids, we performed whole-genome sequencing of 21 natural livestock infective schistosome isolates. To facilitate this, we also assembled a de novo chromosomal-scale draft assembly of Schistosoma curassoni. Genomic analyses identified isolates of S. bovis, S. curassoni and hybrids between the two species, all of which were early generation hybrids with multiple generations found within the same host. These results show that hybridization is an ongoing process within natural populations with the potential to further challenge elimination efforts against schistosomiasis.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Life in Data”—Outcome of a Multi-Disciplinary, Interactive Biobanking Conference Session on Sample Data

©Sara Y. Nussbeck et al. 2016; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. The article attached is the publisher's pdf

Checklist of newly-vouchered annelid taxa from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean, based on morphology and genetic delimitation

We present a checklist of annelids from recent United Kingdom Seabed Resources (UKSR) expeditions (Abyssal Baseline - ABYSSLINE project) to the eastern abyssal Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) polymetallic nodule fields, based on DNA species delimitation, including imagery of voucher specimens, Darwin Core (DwC) data and links to vouchered specimen material and new GenBank sequence records. This paper includes genetic and imagery data for 129 species of annelids from 339 records and is restricted to material that is, in general, in too poor a condition to describe formally at this time, but likely contains many species new to science. We make these data available both to aid future taxonomic studies in the CCZ that will be able to link back to these genetic data and specimens and to better underpin ongoing ecological studies of potential deep-sea mining impacts using the principles of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusuable) data and specimens that will be available for all.We include genetic, imagery and all associated metadata in Darwin Core format for 129 species of annelids from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, eastern abyssal Pacific, with 339 records

How many metazoan species live in the world’s largest mineral exploration region?

The global surge in demand for metals such as cobalt and nickel has created unprecedented interest in deep-sea habitats with mineral resources. The largest area of activity is a 6 million km2 region known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific, regulated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Baseline biodiversity knowledge of the region is crucial to effective management of environmental impact from potential deep-sea mining activities, but until recently this has been almost completely lacking. The rapid growth in taxonomic outputs and data availability for the region over the last decade has allowed us to conduct the first comprehensive synthesis of CCZ benthic metazoan biodiversity for all faunal size classes. Here we present the CCZ Checklist, a biodiversity inventory of benthic metazoa vital to future assessments of environmental impacts. An estimated 92% of species identified from the CCZ are new to science (436 named species from a total of 5,578 recorded). This is likely to be an overestimate owing to synonyms in the data but is supported by analysis of recent taxonomic studies suggesting that 88% of species sampled in the region are undescribed. Species richness estimators place total CCZ metazoan benthic diversity at 6,233 (+/−82 SE) species for Chao1, and 7,620 (+/−132 SE) species for Chao2, most likely representing lower bounds of diversity in the region. Although uncertainty in estimates is high, regional syntheses become increasingly possible as comparable datasets accumulate. These will be vital to understanding ecological processes and risks of biodiversity loss

Elimination of Schistosomiasis Transmission in Zanzibar: Baseline Findings before the Onset of a Randomized Intervention Trial.

Gaining and sustaining control of schistosomiasis and, whenever feasible, achieving local elimination are the year 2020 targets set by the World Health Organization. In Zanzibar, various institutions and stakeholders have joined forces to eliminate urogenital schistosomiasis within 5 years. We report baseline findings before the onset of a randomized intervention trial designed to assess the differential impact of community-based praziquantel administration, snail control, and behavior change interventions. In early 2012, a baseline parasitological survey was conducted in ∼20,000 people from 90 communities in Unguja and Pemba. Risk factors for schistosomiasis were assessed by administering a questionnaire to adults. In selected communities, local knowledge about schistosomiasis transmission and prevention was determined in focus group discussions and in-depths interviews. Intermediate host snails were collected and examined for shedding of cercariae. The baseline Schistosoma haematobium prevalence in school children and adults was 4.3% (range: 0-19.7%) and 2.7% (range: 0-26.5%) in Unguja, and 8.9% (range: 0-31.8%) and 5.5% (range: 0-23.4%) in Pemba, respectively. Heavy infections were detected in 15.1% and 35.6% of the positive school children in Unguja and Pemba, respectively. Males were at higher risk than females (odds ratio (OR): 1.45; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-2.03). Decreasing adult age (OR: 1.04; CI: 1.02-1.06), being born in Pemba (OR: 1.48; CI: 1.02-2.13) or Tanzania (OR: 2.36; CI: 1.16-4.78), and use of freshwater (OR: 2.15; CI: 1.53-3.03) showed higher odds of infection. Community knowledge about schistosomiasis was low. Only few infected Bulinus snails were found. The relatively low S. haematobium prevalence in Zanzibar is a promising starting point for elimination. However, there is a need to improve community knowledge about disease transmission and prevention. Control measures tailored to the local context, placing particular attention to hot-spot areas, high-risk groups, and individuals, will be necessary if elimination is to be achieved