Marine Organism Taxonomy Core Facility - MOTax, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy.
NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 20;14(1):19291. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69520-2.
Marine and coastal ecosystems respond to climate change in various ways, such as the type of ecosystem, the species composition, interactions, and distribution, and the effect of local stressors. Metazoan organisms, particularly zooplankton, are important indicators for monitoring the effects climate-driven warming in marine coastal ecosystems over the long term. In this study, the diversity and distribution of zooplankton communities in the Mediterranean Sea (Canyon Dohrn and LTER-MareChiara, Gulf of Naples), a known biodiversity and climate changes hotspot, have been assessed using the integration of morphological-based identification and organismal eDNA. Our findings showed that the multi-locus strategy including the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene and the hypervariable region V9 of the 18S rDNA (18S V9) as targets, improved the taxonomic overview, with the COI gene being more effective than the 18S V9 region for metazoans at the species level. However, appendicularians were detected only with the 18S V9 region. Overall, organismal eDNA is a powerful approach for revealing hidden biodiversity, especially for gelatinous and meroplankton components, and provided new insights into biodiversity patterns. The ecological importance of calanoid copepods in coastal ecosystems has been confirmed. In contrast, the discovery of 13 new metazoan records in the Mediterranean Sea, including two non-indigenous copepod species, suggested that local stressors affect zooplankton community structure and resilience, highlighting the importance of biomonitoring and protecting marine coastal ecosystems.
海洋和沿海生态系统以各种方式对气候变化作出响应，例如生态系统类型、物种组成、相互作用和分布，以及局部胁迫因素的影响。后生动物生物体，特别是浮游动物，是监测海洋沿海生态系统长期气候驱动变暖影响的重要指标。在这项研究中，使用基于形态学的鉴定和生物体 eDNA 整合方法，评估了地中海（多恩海峡和 LTER-MareChiara、那不勒斯湾）海洋生态系统中浮游动物群落的多样性和分布，该地区是一个已知的生物多样性和气候变化热点地区。我们的研究结果表明，包括线粒体细胞色素 c 氧化酶 I（COI）基因和 18S rDNA 的高变区 V9（18S V9）在内的多基因座策略，提高了分类学综述，COI 基因在物种水平上比 18S V9 区对后生动物更有效。然而，蔓足类动物仅通过 18S V9 区检测到。总体而言，生物体 eDNA 是揭示隐藏生物多样性的有力方法，特别是对于凝胶状和 meroplankton 成分，并为生物多样性模式提供了新的见解。确定了桡足类在沿海生态系统中的生态重要性。相比之下，在地中海发现了 13 种新的后生动物记录，包括两种非本地桡足类物种，这表明局部胁迫因素影响浮游动物群落结构和恢复力，强调了生物监测和保护海洋沿海生态系统的重要性。
