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Birds, nutrients, and climate change: mtDNA haplotype diversity of Arctic Daphnia on Svalbard revisited

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Abstract

Ecosystems in the high Arctic are in transition due to climate change and species shifts. On the Svalbard archipelago, the average annual temperature has increased by more than 2 °C over the past 30 years, and there has been a striking increase in breeding populations of geese. Birds serve as a dominant source of nutrients (via faeces) and may also serve as vectors of dispersal of many small aquatic organisms. We compared samples of species and haplotype composition of the dominant freshwater crustacean Daphnia spp., from 1992, and those resampled in 2014 to see if these major impacts on Arctic freshwater ecosystems may also have affected this key grazer over the past three decades. The study covers tundra ponds that vary in levels of nutrients, abundance, and diversity of birds. Comparison of genetic mitochondrial DNA sequences revealed little change in haplotype and nucleotide diversity between 1992 and 2014, but higher species and haplotype diversity were found in nutrient-rich ponds that hosted large migratory bird populations. This could either reflect that high nutrient levels allow for the maintenance of higher levels of genetic diversity (i.e. haplotypes, lineages), that birds serve as vectors for the dispersal of clones, or likely a combination of both mechanisms.

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Acknowledgements

The collection of samples on Svalbard in 2014 was done during an expedition funded by the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme operated by the National Centre for Research and Development under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009–2014 in the frame of Project Contract No. Pol-Nor/201992/93/2014. The authors also acknowledge the funding sources (see Weider and Hobæk 1994) that allowed for the 1992 sample collection expedition. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, AKVA, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway

    Kristian Alfsnes & Dag O. Hessen

  2. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Region West, Thormøhlensgt. 53D,, 5006, Bergen, Norway

    Anders Hobæk

  3. Department of Biology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Anders Hobæk

  4. Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Lawrence J. Weider

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  1. Kristian Alfsnes
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  2. Anders Hobæk
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  3. Lawrence J. Weider
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  4. Dag O. Hessen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristian Alfsnes.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

List of primers and PCR cycling conditions (DOCX 15 kb)

Online Resource 2

List of previously published Daphnia pulex species complex sequences included in the phylogeny (DOCX 17 kb)

Online Resource 3

Bayesian phylogeny as shown in Fig. 2 showing all (uncollapsed) clades and every pond. Taxa indicated with Regions, followed by ponds (# - see Table 3), number of sequences (italics) and sample year (PDF 115 kb)

Online Resource 4

Lineages by regions and the respective population genetic parameters (DOCX 17 kb)

Online Resource 5

Distribution of haplotypes (DOCX 17 kb)

Online Resource 6

Haplotype and lineage comparison of individual ponds sampled in 1992 and 2014 (DOCX 17 kb)

Online Resource 7

Linear correlation between nutrient content (μg P/L) and; haplotype (Hd) and nucleotide (π) diversity for the 2014 dataset. (PDF 106 kb)

Online Resource 8

Rarefaction curves (using R and specaccum{vegan}, 100 permutations, first order jack-knife) showing the expected discovery of haplotypes for ponds at Måkeøyane and Reinsdyrflya from 1992 and 2014. Bars are 95 % confidence intervals (PDF 105 kb)

Online Resource 9

AMOVA for the 1992 and 2014 datasets (DOCX 14 kb)

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Alfsnes, K., Hobæk, A., Weider, L.J. et al. Birds, nutrients, and climate change: mtDNA haplotype diversity of Arctic Daphnia on Svalbard revisited. Polar Biol 39, 1425–1437 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1868-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1868-8

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