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A year-round study on digestive enzymes in the Arctic copepod Calanus glacialis: implications for its capability to adjust to changing environmental conditions

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Abstract

The biomass of zooplankton communities in Arctic shelf regions is dominated by the calanoid copepod Calanus glacialis. This species spends the winter in deep water, and then, metabolic rates are low. In late winter, it migrates to the surface where the spring generation develops. To date, it is not fully understood what regulates the activity of the copepods and how it coincides with food availability. To fill this gap, we sampled C. glacialis, mainly copepodite stage V, in a high-Arctic fjord in monthly intervals for 1 year and determined proteinase and lipase/esterase activities in relation to food availability and depth distribution of the copepods. By substrate SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), we tackled changes in specific isoforms. We found a clear seasonal enzyme activity pattern. Activities in winter were reduced by at least 75 % as compared to spring. Substrate SDS-PAGE showed high heterogeneity of lipolytic enzymes, which could reflect extensive accumulation and metabolization of internal lipids. Only one band of proteolytic activity was found, and it intensified with the onset of the algal blooms. In late winter/spring, we sampled females and CIV, which also showed high digestive enzyme activities in surface water and low activities in deep water. High enzyme activities were related to the ice algal and phytoplankton blooms in spring. In autumn, the copepods descended although food was still available. C. glacialis could thus benefit from an early ice breakup and early algal blooms, but not from long-lasting phytoplankton availability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the crew and the scientists of the RV Helmer Hanssen and of the small motorboat farm for their support during the cruises. For providing chlorophyll a data, we thank Miriam Marquardt. Our manuscript benefited from constructive comments of Dr. Reinhard Saborowski. We thank three anonymous referees for their valuable comments on our manuscript. This research was part of the project CLEOPATRA II: Climate effects on food quality and trophic transfer in the Arctic marginal ice zone, funded by the Research Council of Norway (Project ID 216537). DF was financed from the Helmholtz Graduate School for Polar and Marine Research (VH-GS-200). Part of the fieldwork was financed by an Arctic Field Grant (Project ID 227555).

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

    Daniela Freese & Barbara Niehoff

  2. Arctic Biology, The University Centre in Svalbard, P.O. Box 156, 9171, Longyearbyen, Norway

    Daniela Freese & Janne E. Søreide

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  1. Daniela Freese
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  2. Janne E. Søreide
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  3. Barbara Niehoff
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Correspondence to Daniela Freese.

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Freese, D., Søreide, J.E. & Niehoff, B. A year-round study on digestive enzymes in the Arctic copepod Calanus glacialis: implications for its capability to adjust to changing environmental conditions. Polar Biol 39, 2241–2252 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1891-4

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