Population structure and evolutionary response to environmental changes in C. finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus

Marint dyreplankton er svært sensitive forhold til klimaendringer. I Nord-Atlanteren og Arktis er hoppekreps i slekten Calanus dominerende i dyreplanktonbiomassen og spiller en nøkkelrolle i marine næringskjeder både som primærforbrukere ... og som bytte dyr for mange kommersielt viktige arter. Til tross for på sin økologiske betydning og at det er dokumenterte biogeografiske endringer for Calanus-arter, er det svært begrenset informasjon tilgjengelig om populasjonens genetikk. Midlene for dette prosjekte t vil gi en doktorgradsstudent fra UiN muligheten til et tremåneders forskningsopphold ved University of Connecticut for å fullføre dataanalysene på genetiske strukturer hos disse to artene.

There is increasing evidence of climate-induced alterations of marine ecosystems, ranging from biogeographical and phenological changes to abrupt ecosystem shifts. Marine zooplankton is strongly affected by climate change. In the North Atlantic and the Ar ctic, copepods of the genus Calanus are predominant in the zooplankton biomass and play a key role in marine food webs both as main primary consumers and as prey species for many commercially important species. Despite on its ecological importance and obs erved evidences for biogeographic changes of Calanus spp., very limited information is available on its population genetic structure. This proposal is connected to the project ?Calanus in the North Atlantic: species distribution and genetic population st ructure in space and time? financed under the HAVKYST program (216578). As part of this project, the large-scale SNP genotyping of Calanus spp. will be performed in the coming winter at University of Nordland (Norway). The current proposal request funding for the applicant (PhD in the project) to visit Ann Bucklin´s laboratory group (University of Connecticut, USA) for training on the high throughput data processing, analysis, and interpretation with focus on the population genetic structure of Calanus sp p. The group has extensive expertise in a broad area of research, ranging from zooplankton biodiversity and population genetics to genomics and bioinformatics, and will contribute to the successful fulfillment of the project.