Nutritional condition drives spatial variation in physiology of Antarctic lipid-storing copepods.

ABSTRACT: Lipid-rich copepods form an essential link between primary producers and higher trophic levels in high-latitude oceans. These zooplankton can take advantage of ephemeral phytoplankton blooms to fuel development and reproduction. However, we have limited understanding of how the physiological condition of these animals varies in relation to environmental factors such as food availability. Due to high advection, it is likely that physiological plasticity, rather than local adaptation, is primarily responsible for physiological differences within a region. We use transcriptomics and other physiological metrics to understand how two species of copepods (Calanoides acutus and Calanus propinquus) vary across environmental gradients along the West Antarctic Peninsula. For the primar

SUBMITTER: Berger CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11369209 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature