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Detection of zooplankton items in the stomach and gut content of larval krill, Euphausia superba, using a molecular approach

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Abstract

The usefulness of a molecular approach based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was investigated to identify and quantify the feeding of larval krill on zooplankton organisms in the Lazarev Sea during winter in 2006. Different primers and probes of dominant copepod species (Oithona sp., Ctenocalanus citer, copepodid stages of Metridia gerlachei and Calanoides acutus), co-occurring with larval krill under sea ice during winter, were developed for quantitative PCR (qPCR) and their species specificity was tested on target and non-target species. The qPCR results showed that larval krill were exclusively feeding on Oithona sp. This result was confirmed by microscopic analysis of stomach and gut contents of larvae from the same stations.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the German Ministry of Education and Science through project 03F0400A, Subproject 4 of the Lazarev Sea Krill Study (LAKRIS) Project. The LAKRIS-Project is the German contribution to the Southern Ocean-Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (SO-GLOBEC) programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Division Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Kerstin Töbe & Bettina Meyer

  2. Institut de Ciéncies del Mar (CSIC), Passeig Maritim de la Barcelona 37-49, Barcelona, Spain

    Veronica Fuentes

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  1. Kerstin Töbe
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  2. Bettina Meyer
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  3. Veronica Fuentes
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Correspondence to Bettina Meyer.

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Töbe, K., Meyer, B. & Fuentes, V. Detection of zooplankton items in the stomach and gut content of larval krill, Euphausia superba, using a molecular approach. Polar Biol 33, 407–414 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0714-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0714-2

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