Geographic ranges of ascidians from Antarctica and the southeastern Pacific

Historical and novel data on the geographic and bathymetric distribution of ascidians from Antarctic, Magellan and Chilean waters are compiled, and an inventory of taxa comprising 162 species reported over a 150 year period from the Antarctic region South Polar Province (SPP) compiled. The ascidian fauna from the South Shetland Islands (SSI) is compared with that of the Magellan region, Patagonia and the Chilean coast. We collected 46 ascidian species along the Chilean coast, and during four expeditions to King George Island (SSI) by SCUBA between 2003–2012. About 15% of King George Island (SSI) species are observed to occur also in shallow waters of southern Chile (SCL). Few species known from warm temperate southeastern Pacific (Northern Chile, NCL) waters are absent from the Chilean part of the Magellan Province (SCL). With most data contributed from the Chilean coast coming from the SCL, and with limited sampling having been undertaken at depths exceeding 100 m in the NCL, apparent differences in species richness along the Chilean coast could be attributabed to differential sampling effort. We detail 12 species from our Antarctic and Chilean collections in detail, including one, Diplosoma listerianum, not previously reported from Chilean waters, and the genus Botryllus, previously known from them on the basis of a single record. Citation: Schories D, Sanamyan K, Sanamyan N, et al. Geographic ranges of ascidians from Antarctica and the southeastern Pacific. Adv Polar Sci, 2015, 26: 8-23, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2015.1.00008