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How do harpacticoid copepods colonize detrital seagrass leaves?

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Abstract

An experiment was carried out investigating the colonization ability and specific pattern of copepods towards a provisional benthic habitat. Since copepods are known to disperse passively and actively, the experiment aimed to investigate the pool of colonizers of macrophytodetritus and the species-specific active colonization pathways. The experiment was performed in a Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica meadow on defaunated macrophytodetritus accumulations (mainly dead seagrass leaves) for two time intervals (24 and 96 h). Active colonization by copepods, independently of their adjacent potential source pool habitat (bare sandy sediments, P. oceanica canopy, water column and macrophytodetritus) occurred within 24 h. Natural densities (as in the control treatments) were only reached by active colonization through the water column. Both neither diversities nor species composition of natural macrophytodetritus were ever reached by one single migratory pathway, therefore only a combination of interstitial migration and water column migration can explain the species occurrence under natural condition. Moreover, every potential adjacent source pool habitat contributed species to the newly colonized macrophytodetritus. However, the main colonizers were mostly species with good swimming capabilities. The diverse pool of species present in the newly colonized macrophytodetritus underlines the complex communities and dispersion capabilities of copepods. Hence, macrophytodetritus possesses the potential ability to be a colonizer source pool for every adjacent habitat and thus behaves as a copepod hub for the entire seagrass ecosystem.

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Acknowledgments

The authors kindly thank the Stareso field station staff for their assistance in the experimental setup and Renzo Biondo for his help throughout the design. The authors thank the three anonymous referees for their constructive remarks that contributed to the improvement of the manuscript. The first author acknowledges a F.R.I.A. Ph.D. Grant (Belgian National Fund for Research Training in industry and in agriculture). This study was conducted within the frame of FRS-FNRS research Project FRFC 2.4511.09 (University of Liège) with additional support provided by the Ghent University (BOF-GOA 01GZ0705 and 01GA1911W). G. Lepoint is a Research Associate of the FRS-FNRS. M. De Troch is a postdoctoral fellow financed by the Special Research Fund of the Ghent University (BOF-GOA 01GA1911 W). This is the MARE paper number 288.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281-S8, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Thibaud Mascart, Laura Agusto & Marleen De Troch

  2. Laboratory of Oceanology, MARE Centre, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B6C, 4000, Liège, Belgium

    Thibaud Mascart, Gilles Lepoint & François Remy

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  1. Thibaud Mascart
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  2. Laura Agusto
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  3. Gilles Lepoint
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  4. François Remy
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Correspondence to Thibaud Mascart.

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Communicated by M. Huettel.

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Mascart, T., Agusto, L., Lepoint, G. et al. How do harpacticoid copepods colonize detrital seagrass leaves?. Mar Biol 162, 929–943 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-015-2632-x

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