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Mazurkiewicz M, Pawłowska J, Barrenechea Angeles I, Grzelak K, Deja K, Zaborska A, Pawłowski J, Włodarska-Kowalczuk M. Sediment DNA metabarcoding and morphology provide complementary insight into macrofauna and meiobenthos response to environmental gradients in an Arctic glacial fjord. MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 198:106552. [PMID: 38788477 DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Revised: 05/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Arctic fjords ecosystems are highly dynamic, with organisms exposed to various natural stressors along with productivity clines driven by advection of water masses from shelves. The benthic response to these environmental clines has been extensively studied using traditional, morphology-based approaches mostly focusing on macroinvertebrates. In this study we analyse the effects of glacially mediated disturbance on the biodiversity of benthic macrofauna and meiobenthos (meiofauna and Foraminifera) in a Svalbard fjord by comparing morphology and eDNA metabarcoding. Three genetic markers targeting metazoans (COI), meiofauna (18S V1V2) and Foraminifera (18S 37f) were analyzed. Univariate measures of alpha diversity and multivariate compositional dissimilarities were calculated and tested for similarities in response to environmental gradients using correlation analysis. Our study showed different taxonomic composition of morphological and molecular datasets for both macrofauna and meiobenthos. Some taxonomic groups while abundant in metabarcoding data were almost absent in morphology-based inventory and vice versa. In general, species richness and diversity measures in macrofauna morphological data were higher than in metabarcoding, and similar for the meiofauna. Both methodological approaches showed different patterns of response to the glacially mediated disturbance for the macrofauna and the meiobenthos. Macrofauna showed an evident distinction in taxonomic composition and a dramatic cline in alpha diversity indices between the outer and inner parts of fjord, while the meiobenthos showed a gradual change and more subtle responses to environmental changes along the fjord axis. The two methods can be seen as complementing rather than replacing each other. Morphological approach provides more accurate inventory of larger size species and more reliable quantitative data, while metabarcoding allows identification of inconspicuous taxa that are overlooked in morphology-based studies. As different taxa may show different sensitivities to environmental changes, both methods shall be used to monitor marine biodiversity in Arctic ecosystems and its response to dramatically changing environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mikołaj Mazurkiewicz
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland.
| | - Joanna Pawłowska
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland
| | - Inés Barrenechea Angeles
- Department of Geosciences, The Arctic University of Norway, Dramsvegen 201, 9010, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Katarzyna Grzelak
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland
| | - Kajetan Deja
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland
| | - Agata Zaborska
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland
| | - Jan Pawłowski
- Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712, Sopot, Poland; ID-Gene Ecodiagnostics, Chemin du Pont-du-Centenaire 109, 1228, Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland
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Kong H, Yang EJ, Jiao N, Lee Y, Jung J, Cho KH, Moon JK, Kim JH, Xu D. RNA outperforms DNA-based metabarcoding in assessing the diversity and response of microeukaryotes to environmental variables in the Arctic Ocean. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 876:162608. [PMID: 36871742 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The Arctic Ocean (AO) has a harsh environment characterized by low temperatures, extensive ice coverage, and periodic freezing and melting of sea ice, which has provided diverse habitats for microorganisms. Prior studies primarily focused on microeukaryote communities in the upper water or sea ice based on environmental DNA, leaving the composition of active microeukaryotes in the diverse AO environments largely unknown. This study provided a vertical assessment of microeukaryote communities in the AO from snow and ice to sea water at a depth of 1670 m using high-throughput sequencing of co-extracted DNA and RNA. RNA extracts depicted microeukaryote community structure and intergroup correlations more accurately and responded more sensitively to environmental conditions than those derived from DNA. Using RNA:DNA ratios as a proxy for relative activity of major taxonomic groups, the metabolic activities of major microeukaryote groups were determined along depth. Analysis of co-occurrence networks showed that parasitism between Syndiniales and dinoflagellates/ciliates in the deep ocean may be significant. This study increased our knowledge of the diversity of active microeukaryote communities and highlighted the importance of using RNA-based sequencing over DNA-based sequencing to examine the relationship between microeukaryote assemblages and the responses of microeukaryotes to environmental variables in the AO.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hejun Kong
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Institute of Marine Microbes and Ecospheres, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
| | - Eun-Jin Yang
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Nianzhi Jiao
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Institute of Marine Microbes and Ecospheres, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
| | - Youngju Lee
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Jinyoung Jung
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Kyoung-Ho Cho
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Jong-Kuk Moon
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Jee-Hoon Kim
- Division of Polar Ocean Science, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
| | - Dapeng Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Institute of Marine Microbes and Ecospheres, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
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Patrohay E, Gradinger R, Marquardt M, Bluhm BA. First trait-based characterization of Arctic ice meiofauna taxa. Polar Biol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-022-03099-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
AbstractTrait-based approaches connect the traits of species to ecosystem functions to estimate the functional diversity of communities and how they may respond to environmental change. For the first time, we compiled a traits matrix across 11 traits for 28 species of Arctic ice meiofauna, including Copepoda (Subclass), Nematoda (Phylum), Acoela (Order), Rotifera (Phylum), and Cnidaria (Phylum). Over 50 years of pan-Arctic literature were manually reviewed, and trait categories were assigned to enable future trait–function connections within the threatened ice-associated ecosystem. Approximately two-thirds of the traits data were found at the genus or species level, ranging from 44% for Nematoda to 100% for Cnidaria. Ice meiofauna were shown to possess advantageous adaptations to the brine channel network within sea ice, including a majority with small body widths < 200 μm, high body flexibility, and high temperature and salinity tolerance. Diets were found to be diverse outside of the algal bloom season, with most organisms transitioning to ciliate-, omnivore-, or detritus-based diets. Eight species of the studied taxa have only been recorded within sea ice, while the rest are found in a mixture of sympagic–pelagic–benthic habitats. Twelve of the ice meiofauna species have been found with all life stages present in sea ice. Body width, temperature tolerance, and salinity tolerance were identified as traits with the largest research gaps and suffered from low-resolution taxonomic data. Overall, the compiled data show the degree to which ice meiofauna are adapted to spending all or portions of their lives within the ice.
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The occurrence of Nematoda in coastal sea ice on Svalbard (European Arctic) determined with the 18S small subunit rRNA gene. Polar Biol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-021-02863-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
AbstractUnderstanding the diversity and functioning of Arctic sea ice ecosystems is vital to evaluate and predict the impact of current and future climate change. In the microscopic communities inhabiting the brine channels inside sea ice, nematodes often dominate numerically and act as bacterivores and herbivores. Despite nematodes great abundances and known ecological roles, molecular tools have not been applied to investigate their species diversity in sea ice. In an attempt to begin establishing a molecular baseline for species diversity of sea ice nematodes, we Sanger sequenced 74 specimens from four locations around Svalbard (European Arctic), using the 18S rRNA barcode. Currently available nucleotide reference databases are both underpopulated with representative marine nematode taxa and contain a substantial number of misidentified organisms. Together, these limitations inhibited the ability to identify marine specimens collected in this study with certainty. Nevertheless, our molecular data indicate the presence of two genera in sea ice on Svalbard—Theristus and Halomonhystera. While it is possible that the latter represents a novel ice nematode species, future studies, including morphometric analysis, are needed to verify our molecular findings. We leverage the assignment of molecular information to robustly identify nematodes and provide the first insight into the diversity of sea ice nematodes in the European Arctic. We advocate for an intensified cooperation between molecular and morphological taxonomists to expedite the establishment of baseline surveys that are required to predict biological consequences of the diminishing sea ice habitat in the future.
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Crude oil exposure reduces ice algal growth in a sea-ice mesocosm experiment. Polar Biol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-021-02818-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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von Friesen LW, Granberg ME, Pavlova O, Magnusson K, Hassellöv M, Gabrielsen GW. Summer sea ice melt and wastewater are important local sources of microlitter to Svalbard waters. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2020; 139:105511. [PMID: 32278193 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Revised: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Human activities leave traces of marine litter around the globe. The Arctic is, despite its remoteness, emerging as an area of no exception to this environmental issue. Arctic sea ice has previously been found to constitute a temporal sink of microplastics, but the potential release and subsequent fate of microplastics in the marine environment are yet unknown. Furthermore, the relative importance of local sources of microplastics in the Arctic marine environment is under discussion. In this study, the concentration and distribution of anthropogenic microparticles (AMPs, <5 mm, including microplastics) have been investigated in marine waters and sea ice of Svalbard. Seawater samples throughout the water column and floating sea ice samples were collected along a transect originating in Rijpfjorden, reaching northwards to the sea ice-edge. Seawater samples were also collected along a transect extending westwards from head to mouth of Kongsfjorden. Samples were collected throughout the water column with stations positioned to enable detection of potential AMP emissions from the wastewater outlet in Ny-Ålesund. Along both transects, environmental parameters were measured to explore potential correlations with AMP distribution. High concentrations of AMPs were detected in sea ice (158 ± 155 AMPs L-1). Based on both AMP concentrations and characteristics, AMPs identified in seawater of the marginal ice zone are to a large extent likely released during the melting of sea ice. The release of AMPs during summer melting of sea ice was concomitantly taking place with the ice-edge bloom, suggesting increased bioavailability to Arctic marine biota. Concentrations of AMPs were up to an order of magnitude higher in Kongsfjorden (up to 48.0 AMPs L-1) than in Rijpfjorden (up to 7.4 AMPs L-1). The distribution and composition of AMPs in Kongsfjorden suggest the wastewater outlet in Ny-Ålesund to be a likely source. Our results emphasize the importance of local point- and diffuse sources of AMPs in the Arctic and stress the urgency of considering their associated environmental impact. Implementation of regulatory policy is of importance, particularly since human activities and environmental pressures are increasing in the Arctic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa W von Friesen
- IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Kristineberg 566, SE-45178 Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
| | - Maria E Granberg
- IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Kristineberg 566, SE-45178 Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
| | - Olga Pavlova
- Norwegian Polar Institute, FRAM - High North Research Centre on Climate and the Environment, P.O. Box 6606 Langnes, NO-9296 Tromsø, Norway.
| | - Kerstin Magnusson
- IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Kristineberg 566, SE-45178 Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
| | - Martin Hassellöv
- University of Gothenburg, Department of Marine Sciences. Kristineberg 566, SE-45178 Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
| | - Geir W Gabrielsen
- Norwegian Polar Institute, FRAM - High North Research Centre on Climate and the Environment, P.O. Box 6606 Langnes, NO-9296 Tromsø, Norway.
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Kunisch EH, Bluhm BA, Daase M, Gradinger R, Hop H, Melnikov IA, Varpe Ø, Berge J. Pelagic occurrences of the ice amphipod Apherusa glacialis throughout the Arctic. JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH 2020; 42:73-86. [PMID: 32025067 PMCID: PMC6994818 DOI: 10.1093/plankt/fbz072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2019] [Revised: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Apherusa glacialis is a common, sea ice-associated amphipod found throughout the Arctic Ocean and has long been considered permanently associated with the sea ice habitat. However, pelagic occurrences of A. glacialis have also been reported. It was recently suggested that A. glacialis overwinters at depth within the Atlantic-water inflow near Svalbard, to avoid being exported out of the Arctic Ocean through the Fram Strait. This study collated pelagic occurrence records over a 71-year period and found that A. glacialis was consistently found away from its presumed sea ice habitat on a pan-Arctic scale, in different depths and water masses. In the Svalbard region, A. glacialis was found in Atlantic Water both in winter and summer. Additionally, we analyzed A. glacialis size distributions throughout the year, collected mostly from sea ice, in order to elucidate potential life cycle strategies. The majority of young-of-the-year A. glacialis was found in the sea ice habitat during spring, supporting previous findings. Data on size distributions and sex ratios suggest a semelparous lifestyle. A synchronous seasonal vertical migration was not evident, but our data imply a more complex life history than previously assumed. We provide evidence that A. glacialis can no longer be regarded as an autochthonous sympagic species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin H Kunisch
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Bodil A Bluhm
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Malin Daase
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Rolf Gradinger
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Haakon Hop
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
- Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, PO Box 6606, N-9296, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Igor A Melnikov
- P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, IORAS, 36 Nakhimovskiy pr., Moscow 117997, Russia
| | - Øystein Varpe
- The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), PO Box 156, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, PO Box 5685, Torgarden, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Jørgen Berge
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, PO Box 6050 Langnes, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway
- The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), PO Box 156, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
- The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
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