Plasticity in dormancy behaviour of Calanoides acutus in Antarctic coastal waters
Copepods that enter dormancy, such as Calanoides acutus , are key primary consumers in Southern Ocean food webs where they convert a portion of the seasonal phytoplankton biomass into a longer-term energetic and physiological resource as wax ester (WE) reserves. We studied the seasonal abundance and...
| Published in: | ICES Journal of Marine Science |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dare.uva.nl/personal/pure/en/publications/plasticity-in-dormancy-behaviour-of-calanoides-acutus-in-antarctic-coastal-waters(229b8277-0414-4128-8ea0-8b933c1a8236).html https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa042 https://hdl.handle.net/11245.1/229b8277-0414-4128-8ea0-8b933c1a8236 https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/52316018/fsaa042.pdf |
| Summary: | Copepods that enter dormancy, such as Calanoides acutus , are key primary consumers in Southern Ocean food webs where they convert a portion of the seasonal phytoplankton biomass into a longer-term energetic and physiological resource as wax ester (WE) reserves. We studied the seasonal abundance and lipid profiles of pre-adult and adult C. acutus in relation to phytoplankton dynamics on the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Initiation of dormancy occurred when WE unsaturation was relatively high, and chlorophyll a (Chl a ) concentrations, predominantly attributable to diatoms, were reducing. Declines in WE unsaturation during the winter may act as a dormancy timing mechanism with increased Chl a concentrations likely to promote sedimentation that results in a teleconnection between the surface and deep water inducing ascent. A late summer diatom bloom was linked to early dormancy termination of females and a second spawning event. The frequency and duration of high biomass phytoplankton blooms may have consequences for the lifespan of the iteroparous C. acutus females (either 1 or 2 years) if limited by a total of two main spawning events. Late summer recruits, generated by a second spawning event, likely benefitted from lower predation and high phytoplankton food availability. The flexibility of copepods to modulate their life-cycle strategy in response to bottom-up and top-down conditions enables individuals to optimize their probability of reproductive success in the very variable environment prevalent in the Southern Ocean. |
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