Did glacial advances during the Pleistocene influence differently the demographic histories of benthic and pelagic Antarctic shelf fishes? – Inferences from intraspecific mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence diversity

Abstract

Our data suggest benthic and pelagic species reacted differently to the Pleistocene ice-sheet expansions that probably significantly reduced the suitable habitat for benthic species. However, the asynchronous timing of major demographic events observed in different species within both "ecological guilds", imply that the species examined here may have different population and evolutionary histories, and that more species should be analysed in order to more precisely assess the role of life history in the response of organisms to climatic changes.