Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Phenological responses of the Arctic, ubiquitous, and boreal copepod species to long-term changes in the annual seasonality of the water temperature in the White Sea

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Polar Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The process of climate change by which global temperatures increase and seasonal shifts occur is more pronounced at higher latitudes. These changes induce shifts in the phenology of biota, including zooplankton. Regression analysis revealed significant advance of the spring–summer water warming in the sub-Arctic White Sea (Chupa Inlet, Kandalaksha Bay), which occurs 3 weeks earlier in the last decade compared with 1961. The shift of timing of phenological events of Calanus glacialis, Pseudocalanus spp., Microsetella norvegica, Oithona similis, Acartia spp., Centropages hamatus, and Temora longicornis is particularly pronounced. These shifts were accompanied by a significant increase in Calanus and Microsetella abundance with an observed decrease in Acartia abundance. No correlation between population abundance and year-to-year changes in the species phenology was determined. We propose hypotheses to explain species adaptation to these phenological shifts in the ecosystem: (1) flexibility of life cycle of planktonic copepods, which ensures synchronization of life cycle phases with key events in the environment; and (2) copepod ability to switch to carnivory when algal sources are scarce. Interspecific interactions between ubiquitous species influenced their phenology and abundance, while early development of Microsetella caused later development of Oithona and higher abundance of the latter. We speculate that competition for food resources is a driving factor in the interactions, since the trophic niches of these species overlap.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to all the colleagues and staff of the vessels “Professor Mesyatsev,” “Ladoga,” “Onega,” “Kartesh,” “Belomor,” and “Professor Vladimir Kuznetsov,” as well as the technicians who participated in the monitoring since 1957. Our special thanks go to Dr. Regina V. Prygunkova and Dr. Alexey I. Babkov, who kept running this program for almost 30 years and summarized the hydrological and plankton data from 1960 to 1995. Special thanks go also to Dr. Irina O. Dumanskaya (Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia) for the ice data courtesy. We are grateful to Dr. Eric Goberville, Dr. Sakina-Dorothée Ayata, and one anonymous reviewer for their time and detailed comments, which were very helpful in improving the manuscript. We would also like to thank Dr. Steven Quistad who helped us much in editing for style.

Funding

This research is supported by the ongoing Basic Research Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Dynamics of structure and functioning of the ecosystems of the White Sea and adjacent Arctic seas” (State Task, registration no. AAAA-A19-119022690122-5).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

All authors contributed equally to the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nikolay V. Usov.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file 1 (PDF 119 KB)

Supplementary file 2 (XLSX 28 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Usov, N.V., Khaitov, V.M., Kutcheva, I.P. et al. Phenological responses of the Arctic, ubiquitous, and boreal copepod species to long-term changes in the annual seasonality of the water temperature in the White Sea. Polar Biol 44, 959–976 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02851-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02851-2

Keywords

Navigation