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

Marco Grillo1, Guido Bonello2, Matteo Cecchetto3, Alice Guzzi3, Nicholas Noli1, Cometti Valentina4, Stefano Schiaparelli5, Yi-Ming Gan6

1 Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment (DSFTA) - University of Siena & Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa), , Italy; 2 Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, section of Genoa), , Italy; 3 Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV) - University of Genoa & Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa), , Italy; 4 Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV) - University of Genoa, , Italy; 5 Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, section of Genoa) & Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV) - University of Genoa, , Italy; 6 Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, , Belgium

Corresponding author(s): Marco Grillo (grillomarco94@gmail.com)Guido Bonello (bonello.guido@gmail.com)Matteo Cecchetto (matteocecchetto@gmail.com)Alice Guzzi (aliceguzzi@libero.it)Nicholas Noli (n.noli@student.unisi.it)Cometti Valentina (valentinacometti@libero.it)Stefano Schiaparelli (stefano.schiaparelli@unige.it), Yi-Ming Gan (data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. (2023). SCAR Report 42 - September 2022 - SCAR Data Policy (2022). Zenodo.  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7825314

Abstract

Planktonic, benthic and sympagic copepods collected in the framework of the XXXIVth Expedition of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA) is an occurrence type dataset published by Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa).
Distributional data on planktonic, benthic and sympagic copepods collected in the framework of the XXXIVth Expeditions of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA) to the Ross Sea sector from 2018-2019 are provided here. These occurrences correspond to specimens collected from the 25 μm filters used in the desalination plant of the Italian research station "Mario Zucchelli" (MZS), located in the Terra Nova Bay area (TNB; Ross Sea, Antarctica). This dataset is a contribution to the Antarctic Biodiversity Portal, the thematic Antarctic node for both the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (AntOBIS) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (ANTABIF) (http://www.biodiversity.aq). The dataset was uploaded and integrated with the SCAR-AntOBIS database (the geospatial component of SCAR-MarBIN), under the licence CC-BY 4.0. Please follow the guidelines from the SCAR Data Policy (ISSN 1998-0337) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be. Issues with dataset can be reported at https://github.com/biodiversity-aq/data-publication/
We describe the diversity of marine copepods of Terra Nova Bay (TNB) sampled by the filters installed in the desalination unit (DU) of the Italian research station "Mario Zucchelli". The opening of the intake pipe of the DU is positioned at a depth of 4 meters and allowed a total of 2,116 specimens to be sampled and recognized. In addition, new occurrence records of copepod genera and species are reported in the same zone. We provide an overview of the marine copepods diversity reported for TNB. The total 2,116 individuals correspond to 14 genera and 15 species and are represented by 167 occurrence records in this dataset. Around 52% of the total number of species are new records for the TNB area are reported in this dataset. The publication of this data paper was funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO, contract n°FR/36/AN1/AntaBIS) in the Framework of EU-Lifewatch as a contribution the the SCAR Antarctic biodiversity portal (biodiversity.aq)

Keywords: Occurrence, Specimen, COPEPODA, TERRA NOVA BAY, ROSS SEA, ZOOPLANKTON, COASTAL COPEPODA, DESALINATION UNIT

Project details

Project title: TNB-CODE, Terra Nova Bay barCODing and mEtabarcoding of Antarctic organisms from marine and limno-terrestrial environments
Funding: This project is funded by the PNRA. Grant number: Progetto PNRA 16_00120

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.gbif.org/resource?r=mna_planktonic-benthic-sympagic-copepod

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: N/A
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Copepoda
Order: Calanoida, Cyclopoida, Harpacticoida
Family: Metridinidae, Peltidiidae, Calanidae, Laophontidae, Dactylopusiidae, Hemicyclopinidae, Stephidae, Ancorabolidae, Oithonidae, Harpacticidae, Ameiridae, Tisbidae, Acartiidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The desalination plant (-74.6936 Latitude; 164.1185 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".
Coordinates: 74°41'38.4''S and 74°41'38.4''S Latitude; 164°7'8.4''E and 164°7'8.4''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: December 29, 2018 - February 2, 2019

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	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.
- . 	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).
- . 	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.
- . 	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.
Study extent description: This dataset describes the abundance and distribution of species of copepoda of the XXXIVth PNRA at Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea, Antarctica) between 24 December 2018 to 02 February 2019.
Sampling description: 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).
Quality control description: All records were validated. Coordinates were plotted on map to verify the actual geographical location. All scientific names were checked for typo and matched to the species information backbone of Worlds Register of Marine Species (http://marinespecies.org/) and LSID were assigned to each taxa as scientificNameID. Event dates are compliant to ISO 8601 standard.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Planktonic, benthic and sympagic copepods collected in the desalination unit during the XXXIVth Expedition of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.gbif.org/archive.do?r=mna_planktonic-benthic-sympagic-copepod
Publication date of data: 2023-09-07
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2023-04-07
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
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.
Boxshall, Geoffrey Allan, e Sheila H. Halsey. 2004. An introduction to copepod diversity. Ray Society.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.