Low cost sequencing of mitogenomes from museum samples using baits capture and Ion Torrent

Paid Open Acces

The fate of the Arctic seaweed Fucus distichus under climate change : an ecological niche modeling approach

Rising temperatures are predicted to melt all perennial ice cover in the Arctic by the end of this century, thus opening up suitable habitat for temperate and subarctic species. Canopy‐forming seaweeds provide an ideal system to predict the potential impact of climate‐change on rocky‐shore ecosystems, given their direct dependence on temperature and their key role in the ecological system. Our primary objective was to predict the climate‐change induced range‐shift of Fucus distichus, the dominant canopy‐forming macroalga in the Arctic and subarctic rocky intertidal. More specifically, we asked: which Arctic/subarctic and cold‐temperate shores of the northern hemisphere will display the greatest distributional change of F. distichus and how will this affect niche overlap with seaweeds from temperate regions? We used the program MAXENT to develop correlative ecological niche models with dominant range‐limiting factors and 169 occurrence records. Using three climate‐change scenarios, we projected habitat suitability of F. distichus – and its niche overlap with three dominant temperate macroalgae – until year 2200. Maximum sea surface temperature was identified as the most important factor in limiting the fundamental niche of F. distichus. Rising temperatures were predicted to have low impact on the species' southern distribution limits, but to shift its northern distribution limits poleward into the high Arctic. In cold‐temperate to subarctic regions, new areas of niche overlap were predicted between F. distichus and intertidal macroalgae immigrating from the south. While climate‐change threatens intertidal seaweeds in warm‐temperate regions, seaweed meadows will likely flourish in the Arctic intertidal. Although this enriches biodiversity and opens up new seaweed‐harvesting grounds, it will also trigger unpredictable changes in the structure and functioning of the Arctic intertidal ecosystem

No evidence for hybridization between Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus glacialis in a subarctic area of sympatry

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Mapping Marine Macroalgae along the Norwegian Coast Using Hyperspectral UAV Imaging and Convolutional Nets for Semantic Segmentation

Marine macroalgae form underwater "blue forests" with several important functions. Hyperspectral imaging from unmanned aerial vehicles provides a rich set of spectral and spatial data that can be used to map the distribution of such macroalgae. Results from a study using 81 annotated hyper-spectral images from the Norwegian coast are presented. A U-net convolutional network was used for classification, and accuracies for all macroalgae classes were above 90%, indicating the potential of the method as an accurate tool for blue forest monitoring

A review of reproduction in the seaweed genus Fucus (Ochrophyta, Fucales): Background for renewed consideration as a model organism

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Live discrimination of Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus females : can we trust phenological differences?

Author's accepted version (post-print).This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Marine Biology. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2419-5

Variation in thermal stress response in two populations of the brown seaweed, Fucus distichus, from the Arctic and subarctic intertidal

It is unclear whether intertidal organisms are ‘preadapted’ to cope with the increase of temperature and temperature variability or if they are currently at their thermal tolerance limits. To address the dichotomy, we focused on an important ecosystem engineer of the Arctic intertidal rocky shores, the seaweed Fucus distichus and investigated thermal stress responses of two populations from different temperature regimes (Svalbard and Kirkenes, Norway). Thermal stress responses at 20°C, 24°C and 28°C were assessed by measuring photosynthetic performance and expression of heat shock protein (HSP) genes (shsp, hsp90 and hsp70). We detected population-specific responses between the two populations of F. distichus, as the Svalbard population revealed a smaller decrease in photosynthesis performance but a greater activation of molecular defence mechanisms (indicated by a wider repertoire of HSP genes and their stronger upregulation) compared with the Kirkenes population. Although the temperatures used in our study exceed temperatures encountered by F. distichus at the study sites, we believe response to these temperatures may serve as a proxy for the species’ potential to respond to climate-related stresses