Dataset Information

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

ABSTRACT: Seaweed farming in Europe is growing and may provide environmental benefits, including habitat provisioning, coastal protection, and bioremediation. Habitat provisioning by seaweed farms remains largely unquantified, with previous research focused primarily on the detrimental effects of epibionts, rather than their roles in ecological functioning and ecosystem service provision. We monitored the development and diversity of epibiont assemblages on cultivated sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) at a farm in Cornwall, southwest UK, and compared the effects of different harvesting techniques on epibiont assemblage structure. Increases in epibiont abundance (PERMANOVA, F_4,25 = 100.56, p < 0.001) and diversity (PERMANOVA, F_4,25 = 27.25, p < 0.001) were found on cultivated kelps over and beyond the growing season, reaching an average abundance of >6000 individuals per kelp plant with a taxonomic richness of ~9 phyla per kelp by late summer (August). Assemblages were dominated by crustaceans (mainly amphipods), molluscs (principally bivalves) and bryozoans, which provide important ecological roles, despite reducing crop quality. Partial harvesting techniques maintained, or increased, epibiont abundance and diversity beyond the farming season; however, these kelp plants were significantly fouled and would not be commercially viable in most markets. This paper improves understanding of epibiont assemblage development at European kelp farms, which can inform sustainable, ecosystem-based approaches to aquaculture.

SUBMITTER: Corrigan S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9865293 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (<i>Saccharina latissima</i>) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

Corrigan Sophie S Brown A Ross AR Tyler Charles R CR Wilding Catherine C Daniels Carly C Ashton Ian G C IGC Smale Dan A DA

Life (Basel, Switzerland) 20230111 1

Seaweed farming in Europe is growing and may provide environmental benefits, including habitat provisioning, coastal protection, and bioremediation. Habitat provisioning by seaweed farms remains largely unquantified, with previous research focused primarily on the detrimental effects of epibionts, rather than their roles in ecological functioning and ecosystem service provision. We monitored the development and diversity of epibiont assemblages on cultivated sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) at ...[more]

PMID: 36676158

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Project description:BackgroundKelps are not only ecologically important, being primary producers and habitat forming species, they also hold substantial economic potential. Expansion of the kelp cultivation industry raises the interest for genetic improvement of kelp for cultivation, as well as concerns about genetic introgression from cultivated to wild populations. Thus, increased understanding of population genetics in natural kelp populations is crucial. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) is a powerful tool for studying population genetics. Here, using Saccharina latissima (sugar kelp) as our study species, we characterize the population genetics at a fine geographic scale, while also investigating the influence of marker type (biallelic SNPs versus multi-allelic short read-backed haplotypes) and minor allele count (MAC) thresholds on estimated population genetic metrics.ResultsWe examined 150 sporophytes from 10 locations within a small area in Mid-Norway. Employing GBS, we detected 20,710 bi-allelic SNPs and 42,264 haplotype alleles at 20,297 high quality GBS loci. We used both marker types as well as two MAC filtering thresholds (3 and 15) in the analyses. Overall, higher genetic diversity, more outbreeding and stronger substructure was estimated using haplotypes compared to SNPs, and with MAC 15 compared to MAC 3. The population displayed high genetic diversity (HE ranging from 0.18-0.37) and significant outbreeding (FIS ≤ - 0.076). Construction of a genomic relationship matrix, however, revealed a few close relatives within sampling locations. The connectivity between sampling locations was high (FST ≤ 0.09), but subtle, yet significant, genetic substructure was detected, even between sampling locations separated by less than 2 km. Isolation-by-distance was significant and explained 15% of the genetic variation, while incorporation of predicted currents in an "isolation-by-oceanography" model explained a larger proportion (~ 27%).ConclusionThe studied population is diverse, significantly outbred and exhibits high connectivity, partly due to local currents. The use of genome-wide markers combined with permutation testing provides high statistical power to detect subtle population substructure and inbreeding or outbreeding. Short haplotypes extracted from GBS data and removal of rare alleles enhances the resolution. Careful consideration of marker type and filtering thresholds is crucial when comparing independent studies, as they profoundly influence numerical estimates of population genetic metrics.

Dataset Information

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

Publications

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (<i>Saccharina latissima</i>) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

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Dataset Information

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

Publications

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (&lt;i&gt;Saccharina latissima&lt;/i&gt;) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets

Development and Diversity of Epibiont Assemblages on Cultivated Sugar Kelp (<i>Saccharina latissima</i>) in Relation to Farming Schedules and Harvesting Techniques.