Diversity of planktonic fish larvae along a latitudinal gradient in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean estimated through DNA barcodes
نویسندگان
چکیده
Mid-trophic pelagic fish are essential components of marine ecosystems because they represent the link between plankton and higher predators. Moreover, they are the basis of the most important fisheries resources; for example, in African waters. In this study, we have sampled pelagic fish larvae in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean along a latitudinal gradient between 37°N and 2°S. We have employed Bongo nets for plankton sampling and sorted visually fish and fish larvae. Using the cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) as a DNA barcode, we have identified 44 OTUs down to species level that correspond to 14 families, with Myctophidae being the most abundant. A few species were cosmopolitan and others latitude-specific, as was expected. The latitudinal pattern of diversity did not exhibit a temperate-tropical cline; instead, it was likely correlated with environmental conditions with a decline in low-oxygen zones. Importantly, gaps and inconsistencies in reference DNA databases impeded accurate identification to the species level of 49% of the individuals. Fish sampled from tropical latitudes and some orders, such as Perciformes, Myctophiformes and Stomiiformes, were largely unidentified due to incomplete references. Some larvae were identified based on morphology and COI analysis for comparing time and costs employed from each methodology. These results suggest the need of reinforcing DNA barcoding reference datasets of Atlantic bathypelagic tropical fish that, as main prey of top predators, are crucial for ecosystem-based management of fisheries resources.
منابع مشابه
Low diversity of planktonic bacteria in the tropical ocean.
The diversity of macro-organisms increases towards the equator, with almost no exceptions. It is the most conserved biogeographical pattern on earth and is thought to be related to the increase of temperature and productivity in the tropics. The extent and orientation of a latitudinal gradient of marine bacterioplankton diversity is controversial. Here we studied the euphotic zone of the Atlant...
متن کاملFish diversity and assemblages according to distance from source along a coastal river gradient (Ehania River south-east of Ivory Coast)
Fish assemblage was investigated during the study of longitudinal profile of the Ehania River Basin in south-eastern Côte d’Ivoire. This area is subjected to intense human activities with many plantations (palm tree, banana, pineapple, coffee, rubber and cocoa). Samples were collected, with gillnets of different mesh sizes, through 6 sampling surveys during dry and rainy seasons from February 2...
متن کاملFish diversity and assemblages according to distance from source along a coastal river gradient (Ehania River south-east of Ivory Coast)
Fish assemblage was investigated during the study of longitudinal profile of the Ehania River Basin in south-eastern Côte d’Ivoire. This area is subjected to intense human activities with many plantations (palm tree, banana, pineapple, coffee, rubber and cocoa). Samples were collected, with gillnets of different mesh sizes, through 6 sampling surveys during dry and rainy seasons from February ...
متن کاملDNA BARCODING DNA barcodes for globally threatened marine turtles: a registry approach to documenting biodiversity
DNA barcoding is a global initiative that provides a standardized and efficient tool to catalogue and inventory biodiversity, with significant conservation applications. Despite progress across taxonomic realms, globally threatened marine turtles remain underrepresented in this effort. To obtain DNA barcodes of marine turtles, we sequenced a segment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) g...
متن کاملEcosystem-Wide Morphological Structure of Leaf-Litter Ant Communities along a Tropical Latitudinal Gradient
General principles that shape community structure can be described based on a functional trait approach grounded on predictive models; increased attention has been paid to factors accounting for the functional diversity of species assemblages and its association with species richness along environmental gradients. We analyze here the interaction between leaf-litter ant species richness, the loc...
متن کامل