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Phylogeography of the copepod Acartia hudsonica in estuaries of the northeastern United States

  • COPEPODA: BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY
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Abstract

Copepods of the genus Acartia dominate zooplankton assemblages in northwestern Atlantic estuaries, many of which originated after the last glacial maximum 10,000–18,000 years ago. Acartia hudsonica occurs, at least seasonally, in estuaries from Chesapeake Bay to Labrador/Newfoundland. We sequenced the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome B (CytB) of 75 individuals of A. hudsonica from 26 estuaries from New Jersey to Maine, covering four biogeographic regions, and 11 individuals of Acartia tonsa from four of these estuaries in the southern part of the sampling range. A. hudsonica exhibited exceptionally high intraspecific DNA sequence variation. Uncorrected p-distances between sequences ranged from 0.3 to 31%. Five highly divergent sequence groups differed in frequencies across populations and biogeographic regions. One sequence group dominated northern localities, and two sequence groups were found at intermediate to high frequencies in two southern biogeographic regions. Ages of the sequence groups were estimated to be 11, 13, 30, and 37 million years, by applying a molecular clock calibrated by divergence in Alpheus snapping shrimps across the Isthmus of Panama. These ages were compared with independent biogeographic paleoceanographic data, and may have coincided with periods of global climate change over the past 40 MY.

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Acknowledgments

This project was partially funded by a NSF-EPSCoR grant awarded to NVS. DNA sequencing was performed in the Sequencing and Genotyping facility of the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, which is supported in part by NCRR AABRE Grant #P20 RR16470, NIH-SCORE Grant #S06GM08102, the University of Puerto Rico Biology Department, and NSFCREST Grant #0206200.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA, 02744, USA

    Peter J. Milligan & Jefferson T. Turner

  2. Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, 02747, USA

    Eli A. Stahl & Jefferson T. Turner

  3. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, PR, 00681, USA

    Nikolaos V. Schizas

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  1. Peter J. Milligan
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  2. Eli A. Stahl
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  3. Nikolaos V. Schizas
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  4. Jefferson T. Turner
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Correspondence to Jefferson T. Turner.

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Guest editors: L. Sanoamuang & J. S. Hwang / Copepoda: Biology and Ecology

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Milligan, P.J., Stahl, E.A., Schizas, N.V. et al. Phylogeography of the copepod Acartia hudsonica in estuaries of the northeastern United States. Hydrobiologia 666, 155–165 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0097-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0097-y

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