Abstract
Copepods serve as a major link in marine food webs, bridging the energy transfer from primary producers to higher trophic levels. Oceanic warming is linked to reduced concentrations of essential fatty acids (FA) in phytoplankton, namely eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5ω3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6ω3), and it remains largely unknown if copepods have the capacity to endure. The calanoid Temora longicornis and the harpacticoid Platychelipus littoralis were chosen to analyse their FA and biosynthesis activity in response to a long-chain polyunsaturated FA (LC-PUFA) deficient diet (Dunaliella tertiolecta) along a temperature gradient. Copepods were fed D. tertiolecta labelled with the stable isotope carbon-13 (13C) to quantify carbon assimilation into their total FA and de novo EPA and DHA biosynthesis after 6 days incubated at 11, 14, 17, 20 and 23 °C. The calanoid had increased mortality with warming, whereas the harpacticoid exhibited high survival across the thermal gradient. After the incubation, P. littoralis assimilated minimal amounts of dietary carbon into its total FA in comparison to T. longicornis. T. longicornis depleted their field EPA and DHA stores more rapidly, whereas P. littoralis maintained its relative storage of EPA and DHA and absolute concentrations of DHA. T. longicornis displayed higher fractions of de novo EPA and DHA biosynthesis than P. littoralis at all temperatures, with the exception of DHA at 23 °C. Within our experimental incubation period both species were unable to meaningfully upgrade the LC-PUFA deficient algae to biosynthesize de novo EPA and DHA as a relevant source for higher trophic levels.
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The dataset produced from this experimental study is included in the electronic supplementary material.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Bruno Vlaeminck, Marine Biology Research Group, Ghent University, for assisting with the fatty acid extraction and analysis. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive insights which improved this manuscript.
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This research was supported with infrastructure funded by EMBRC Belgium - FWO international research infrastructure I001621N. RS is backed by a Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds, Special Research Fund PhD grant – BOF, from Ghent University (BOF21/DOC/228), and JB by a fundamental research PhD grant from the Research Foundation Flanders – FWO (11E2320N).
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RS, JB, IS, MDT conceptualized this study. RS, JB, IS conducted the experiments. SB performed the GC-c-IRMS measurements. RS, JB, SB performed the calculations. RS performed the statistical analysis and prepared the first manuscript draft. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results and manuscript revisions, and consent to the publication of this manuscript.
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Sahota, R., Boyen, J., Semmouri, I. et al. An inter-order comparison of copepod fatty acid composition and biosynthesis in response to a long-chain PUFA deficient diet along a temperature gradient. Mar Biol 169, 133 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04121-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04121-z