Abstract
Copepods of the genus Calanus are key zooplankton species in temperate to arctic marine ecosystems. Despite their ecological importance, species identification remains challenging. Furthermore, the recent report of hybrids among Calanus species highlights the need for diagnostic nuclear markers to efficiently identify parental species and hybrids. Using next-generation sequencing analysis of both the genome and transcriptome from two sibling species, Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus glacialis, we developed a panel of 12 nuclear insertion/deletion markers. All the markers showed species-specific amplicon length. Furthermore, most of the markers were successfully amplified in other Calanus species, allowing the molecular identification of Calanus helgolandicus, Calanus hyperboreus and Calanus marshallae.
Highlights
Copepods of the genus Calanus play an important role both as consumers of primary production and as prey for many ecologically and commercially important species (Lønne & Gulliksen 1989)
Calanus comprise up to 70 % of the zooplankton biomass (Head et al 2003), with three species dominating the subarctic North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans: Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus, 1770), C. glacialis Jaschnov, 1955 and C. hyperboreus Kröyer, 1838 (Søreide et al 2008; Falk-Petersen et al 2009). These species are generally closely associated with the water masses where they originate from (Hirche & Kosobokova 2007), and can be regarded as biological indicators of the North Atlantic sub-Arctic (Calanus finmarchicus) and Arctic (C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus) biomes (Kwasniewski et al 2003; Daase et al 2007)
As a response to ocean warming, a northward shift of the subarctic species C. finmarchicus has been detected with a parallel decline throughout most of the North Atlantic (Beaugrand et al 2002; Chust et al 2013; Maar et al 2013)
Summary
Copepods of the genus Calanus play an important role both as consumers of primary production and as prey for many ecologically and commercially important species (Lønne & Gulliksen 1989). Calanus comprise up to 70 % of the zooplankton biomass (Head et al 2003), with three species dominating the subarctic North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans: Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus, 1770), C. glacialis Jaschnov, 1955 and C. hyperboreus Kröyer, 1838 (Søreide et al 2008; Falk-Petersen et al 2009). These species are generally closely associated with the water masses where they originate from (Hirche & Kosobokova 2007), and can be regarded as biological indicators of the North Atlantic sub-Arctic (Calanus finmarchicus) and Arctic (C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus) biomes (Kwasniewski et al 2003; Daase et al 2007). Calanus species are central to many ecological, environmental and climatological studies (Gabrielsen et al 2012) and correct identification of Calanus species is essential
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