Planktonic, benthic and sympagic copepods collected in the desalination unit during the XXXIVth Expedition of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA)

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 167 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Grillo M, Bonello G, Cecchetto M, Guzzi A, Noli N, Cometti V, Schiaparelli S, Gan Y (2024). Planktonic, benthic and sympagic copepods collected in the desalination unit during the XXXIVth Expedition of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA). Version 1.9. Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa). Occurrence dataset. https://ipt.biodiversity.aq/resource?r=mna_planktonic-benthic-sympagic-copepod&v=1.9

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 081daea5-fe6a-4303-bcc3-126b65d0adeb.  Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen; COPEPODA; TERRA NOVA BAY; ROSS SEA; ZOOPLANKTON; COASTAL COPEPODA; DESALINATION UNIT

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

The desalination plant (-74.693 Latitude; 164.118 Longitude), connected to the Italian research base "Mario Zucchelli" (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea), is located at a depth of 4 m in the locality of "Punta Stocchino".

Taxonomic Coverage

Copepoda specimens were identified to lower possible taxonomic resolution.

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

The research project has as its objective the study of the biodiversity of the main marine, limnic and terrestrial habitats presented in Terra Nova Bay through the examination of samples collected with quantitative methods and analyzed with innovative methodologies of barcoding and metabarcoding. The objectives were the following: Metabarcoding of marine and terrestrial organisms and barcoding on individuals: The samples of marine organisms were processed to know the qualitative composition of sympathetic microalgae, qualitative-quantitative analysis of phytoplankton, morphological and ultrastructural analyses. Furthermore, some samples were stored at -20°C to then carry out barcoding and metabarcoding analyses. Analysis of the filters of the desalination plants: The size fractions of zoo- and phytoplankton that had been filtered by the desalination plant of the Italian research base "Mario Zucchelli" were sampled. On these samples they were destined for metabarcoding analyses. In parallel to the samplings for the metabarcoding, the walls of the filters were scratched in order to obtain algal and metazoan organisms which were placed in culture at 4°C. The algal strains thus obtained will be of great help in both the genetic and morphological characterization of the species that will result from the metabarcoding analyses, while the metazoans will be analyzed taxonomically.

Sampling Methods

Samples were collected using the DU plant of MZS, whose intake pipe is located at 4 meters of depth in the locality of “Punta Stocchino” (Fig. 1). This plant is used to provide freshwater to the research base activities, operating during the entire expedition’s summer season, generally from mid-October, to the beginning of February. From the seawater intake pipe, a series of pipes and valves allow the water to flow to the main structure of the plant, located inside the research station, where the first steps of filtration (called “pre-filtration”) are conducted. These steps consist of a series of disposable filters positioned sequentially with decreasing mesh size. The first one is packed with anthracite, followed by polyester bag filters of 25 μm mesh size, and, finally, by polypropylene cartridges of 5 μm mesh size. The samples reported in this dataset were obtained from the biological material recovered by the 25 μm mesh size filters. More information on the technical specifications of the MZS DU plant can be found in (Cecchetto et al. 2021).

Method step description:

1. The 25 μm mesh size filters are frequently replaced by the DU plant’s technician as soon as the pressure inside the filter housing reaches warning levels to prevent the clogging of the system. After removing the filters from their respective housing, the same were transported to the laboratory, and processed following Cecchetto et al. 2021 and Cecchetto et al. 2022. Briefly, the filters, after removing the metal ring placed at the opening of the filter, were cut longitudinally in order to access its content, i.e. the biological material filtered. Using a scalpel with sterilized, disposable blades, different cuts were performed in different positions of the filter and stored at -20°C, obtaining pieces of the filter that would later be used for metagenomic research purposes. From the remaining parts of the filter, depending on the amount of biological material present on the filter’s surface, a volume of different 15ml falcon tubes of material were scooped from the filter’s surface, using a sterilized spatula, The falcon tubes were then brought to volume with 96% ethanol. The falcon tubes contained a mix of phytoplanktonic and zooplanktonic organisms in different ratios, depending on the biological community that was present in the water column facing the DU intake pipe during the filters’ operative time. The samples, stored at +4°C, were shipped to the MNA (Genoa section) laboratories, where the content of the falcon tubes was sorted and analyzed.
2. The collected copepods were counted and the taxonomic investigation, performed by Guido Bonello and Marco Grillo was performed to the lowest possible level and based upon historic and recent bibliography (Boxshall e Halsey 2004; Bonello et al. 2020). The online portal World Registry of Marine Species (WoRMS), Banyuls sur Mer marine Copepoda database (Razouls et al. 2022); https://copepodes.obs-banyuls.fr) was used to confirm acceptance of species names. When identification was inconclusive, only genus or family names were assigned. For the copepods recognized in this checklist, specimen selections were made to produce high-resolution images, useful for highlighting morphological characters for species classification. Various acquisition techniques were performed to obtain these photos. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fluorescence microscopy employed different coloration with Congo Red and Fuchsin (Michels e Büntzow 2010; Ivanenko et al. 2012).
3. The original unsorted plankton matrix is stored in 96% ethanol, and also at -20°C. The copepod specimens, splitted, sorted and identified, are in 96% ethanol or fixed on a slide and permanently deposited in the biological collection of the MNA.
4. A metabarcoding methodology was also applied to the DU plant’s filters, and only some preliminary and qualitative results are reported here. Specifically, the relative abundance of 18S rRNA sequences identified by the taxonomic identification of the metabarcoding protocol as copepods in respect to the total amount of sequences (Fig. 3) are here reported only to illustrate the temporal dynamics that could be discerned by the metabarcoding approach during the sampling period.

Bibliographic Citations

1. Bonello, Guido, Marco Grillo, Matteo Cecchetto, Marina Giallain, Antonia Granata, Letterio Guglielmo, Luigi Pane, Stefano Schiaparelli. 2020. «Distributional records of Ross Sea (Antarctica) planktic Copepoda from bibliographic data and samples curated at the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA): checklist of species collected in the Ross Sea sector from 1987 to 1995». ZooKeys 969: 1.
2. Boxshall, Geoffrey Allan, e Sheila H. Halsey. 2004. An introduction to copepod diversity. Ray Society.
3. Cecchetto, Matteo, Andrea Di Cesare, Ester Eckert, Giulia Fassio, Diego Fontaneto, Isabella Moro, Marco Oliverio, et al. 2021. «Antarctic Coastal Nanoplankton Dynamics Revealed by Metabarcoding of Desalination Plant Filters: Detection of Short-Term Events and Implications for Routine Monitoring». Science of The Total Environment 757 (febbraio): 143809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143809.
4. Cecchetto, Matteo, Andrea Di Cesare, Ester Eckert, Isabella Moro, Diego Fontaneto, Stefano Schiaparelli. 2022. «A Metabarcoding Protocol to Analyze Coastal Planktic Communities Collected by Desalination Plant Filters: From Sampling to Bioinformatic Exploratory Analyses». In Marine Genomics: Methods and Protocols, 151–76. Springer.
5. Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Paulo HC Corgosinho, Frank Ferrari, Pierre-Marie Sarradin, e Jozee Sarrazin. 2012. «Microhabitat distribution of Smacigastes micheli (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Tegastidae) from deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 37° N (Lucky Strike), with a morphological description of its nauplius». Marine Ecology 33 (2): 246–56.
6. Michels, Jan, e M. Büntzow. 2010. «Assessment of Congo red as a fluorescence marker for the exoskeleton of small crustaceans and the cuticle of polychaetes». Journal of Microscopy 238 (2): 95–101.
7. Razouls, S., N Desreumaux, J Kouwenberg, e F de Bovée. 2022. «Diversity and geographic distribution of marine planktonic copepods». http://copepodes.obs-banyuls.fr/en
8. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. (2023). SCAR Report 42 - September 2022 - SCAR Data Policy (2022). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7825314

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