Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions
Establishing robust estimates of polar marine biodiversity is important for interpreting future changes in the Arctic; however, despite a recent increase in scientific expeditions, this region remains relatively underexplored. Particularly overlooked in biodiversity assessments are small species, su...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/20155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/20155 2023-05-15T14:54:48+02:00 Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions Leasi, Francesca Sevigny, Joseph L. Hassett, Brandon 2020-11-14 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/20155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 eng eng Elsevier Ecological Indicators Leasi, Sevigny, Hassett BT. Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions. Ecological Indicators. 2020;121 FRIDAID 1854905 doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 1470-160X 1872-7034 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/20155 openAccess Copyright 2020 The Author(s) VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2020 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 2021-06-25T17:57:53Z Establishing robust estimates of polar marine biodiversity is important for interpreting future changes in the Arctic; however, despite a recent increase in scientific expeditions, this region remains relatively underexplored. Particularly overlooked in biodiversity assessments are small species, such as protists, fungi, and many small invertebrates that are collectively known as meiofauna. These species contribute to the foundation of food webs and are crucial for the survival of larger species that are economically and socially important. The application of high-throughput sequencing methodologies has proven effective for biomonitoring small metazoan species but has sparingly been applied in the Arctic. We used a metabarcoding approach to assess the diversity of sea ice and sediment-associated metazoans from Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska. Sea ice and sediment samples were collected six times over eight months (January through August) encompassing three seasons (winter, spring, and summer) from polar night to ice-out in August. Biodiversity was assessed as both richness and community composition by incorporating incidence data and phylogenetic distance. Environmental conditions associated with ice, sediment, water, and snow were measured and tested for possible correlations with biodiversity estimates. We found a high number of taxa distributed locally, suggesting that metabarcoding can be effectively applied to Arctic biomonitoring programs. In addition, these results show that season and habitat are significant predictors of meiofaunal biodiversity, supporting hypotheses that meiofauna can be used as a valuable indicator of climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Barrow Climate change polar night Sea ice Alaska University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Ecological Indicators 121 107133 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 Leasi, Francesca Sevigny, Joseph L. Hassett, Brandon Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
topic_facet |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 |
description |
Establishing robust estimates of polar marine biodiversity is important for interpreting future changes in the Arctic; however, despite a recent increase in scientific expeditions, this region remains relatively underexplored. Particularly overlooked in biodiversity assessments are small species, such as protists, fungi, and many small invertebrates that are collectively known as meiofauna. These species contribute to the foundation of food webs and are crucial for the survival of larger species that are economically and socially important. The application of high-throughput sequencing methodologies has proven effective for biomonitoring small metazoan species but has sparingly been applied in the Arctic. We used a metabarcoding approach to assess the diversity of sea ice and sediment-associated metazoans from Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska. Sea ice and sediment samples were collected six times over eight months (January through August) encompassing three seasons (winter, spring, and summer) from polar night to ice-out in August. Biodiversity was assessed as both richness and community composition by incorporating incidence data and phylogenetic distance. Environmental conditions associated with ice, sediment, water, and snow were measured and tested for possible correlations with biodiversity estimates. We found a high number of taxa distributed locally, suggesting that metabarcoding can be effectively applied to Arctic biomonitoring programs. In addition, these results show that season and habitat are significant predictors of meiofaunal biodiversity, supporting hypotheses that meiofauna can be used as a valuable indicator of climate change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leasi, Francesca Sevigny, Joseph L. Hassett, Brandon |
author_facet |
Leasi, Francesca Sevigny, Joseph L. Hassett, Brandon |
author_sort |
Leasi, Francesca |
title |
Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
title_short |
Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
title_full |
Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
title_fullStr |
Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
title_sort |
meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/20155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Barrow Climate change polar night Sea ice Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barrow Climate change polar night Sea ice Alaska |
op_relation |
Ecological Indicators Leasi, Sevigny, Hassett BT. Meiofauna as a valuable bioindicator of climate change in the polar regions. Ecological Indicators. 2020;121 FRIDAID 1854905 doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 1470-160X 1872-7034 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/20155 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2020 The Author(s) |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107133 |
container_title |
Ecological Indicators |
container_volume |
121 |
container_start_page |
107133 |
_version_ |
1766326544424239104 |