DNA-metabarcoding reveals the importance of gelatinous zooplankton in the diet of Pandalus borealis, a keystone species in the Arctic

• Main Authors: Urban, Paulina, Præbel, Kim, Bhat, Shripathi, Dierking, Jan, Wangensteen, Owen S.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Barents Sea; Kongsfjordrenna; Kongsgrunnen; Rekesøyla; Kongsfjord*; northern shrimp; Pandalus borealis; Zooplankton
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/5836076; https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1b6

Information about the dietary composition of species is crucial to understand their position and role in the food web. Stomach content analysis (SCA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA) are commonly used to study marine trophic relationships. SCA can provide high taxonomic resolution but requires taxonomic expertise and frequently underestimates digestible taxa. SIA provides a time-integrated view of the dietary sources but often lacks in taxonomic resolution. The use of molecular approaches such as DNA-metabarcoding may alleviate these problems. Here, we used DNA-metabarcoding with universal primers for cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), to study the diet composition of the Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) from the Barents Sea, a keystone species in the Arctic region with large socio-economic importance. Across locations, jellyfish and chaetognaths were the most important components in the diet of P. borealis, jointly accounting for 40-60% of the total read abundance. This dietary importance of gelatinous zooplankton contrasts sharply with published results based on SCA. At the same time, diet composition differed between fjord and shelf locations, pointing to different food webs supporting P. borealis in these two systems. Our study underscores the potential of molecular approaches to provide important new insights into the diet of marine invertebrates that are difficult or impossible to obtain with traditional methods, and calls for a revision of the role of gelatinous zooplankton in the diet of the key Arctic species P. borealis, and in extension, Arctic food webs. Cruise Location Abbr. Latitude Longitude October 2018 Kvænangenfjord Kv 7004.773 2123.388 January 2019 Inner Isfjorden II 7819.260 1516.465 January 2019 Rekesøyla Re 7818.269 1228.712 January 2019 Kongsfjordrenna Kf 7859.138 0926.922 January 2019 Kongsgrunnen Kg 7934.169 0901.532 January 2019 Minkebanken Mb 7809.982 0956.255 January 2019 North No 7957.086 0902.478 The file "Pandalus_borealis_prey_metabarcoding_finaldataset.csv contain" contains ...