HOW THE PHENOLOGY AND OVERWINTERING STRATEGIES OF COPEPODS ARE DISRUPTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

We are living in a rapidly changing world due to the current climate crisis, which is altering our world faster than the natural climatic fluctuations on Earth. These changes impact all ecosystems and increase the importance of research to understand the consequences of climate change. In our study, we investigated the effects of global warming on the phenology and overwintering strategy of copepods. This knowledge is highly relevant because copepods play a crucial role in the food web. Our study site consists of a bay that has been heated for over 50 years, simulating the potential effects of climate change, and an unaffected control bay for comparison with current environmental conditions. We directly collected zooplankton samples from the field and conducted additional incubation studies using sediment from both bays. These studies aimed to examine the hatching of dormant eggs in the sediment. Copepods exhibit different types of eggs: subitaneous eggs, which hatch immediately, and dormant eggs, which are adapted to survive extended periods of unfavorable environmental conditions, such as winter. From our field samples, we observed that the heated bay generally produces more hatchlings and adult copepods, along with a higher chlorophyll content, compared to the control bay. In the incubation studies, more dormant eggs hatched in the sediment from the control bay than from the heated bay. These results suggest that the life histories of copepods are adapting to the elevated temperatures, seemingly disfavoring the use of dormant eggs.

Primary Presenter: Ida Krogsgaard Svendsen, Linnaeus University (ida.krogsgaardsvendsen@lnu.se)

Authors:

Ida Krogsgaard Svendsen, Linnaeus University  (ida.krogsgaardsvendsen@lnu.se)

Anders Forsman, Linnaeus University  (anders.forsman@lnu.se)

Mark Dopson, Linnaeus University  (mark.dopson@lnu.se)

Emelie Nilsson, Linnaeus University  (emelie.nilsson@lnu.se)

Johanna Sunde, Linnaeus University  (johanna.sunde@lnu.se)

Sofia Håkansson, Linnaeus University  (sofiia.hakansson@gmail.com)

Marcelo Ketzer, Linnaeus University  (marcelo.ketzer@lnu.se)

Samuel Hylander, Linnaeus University  (samuel.hylander@lnu.se)

Romana Salis, Linnaeus University  (romana.salis@lnu.se)