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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Molecular Biology and Ecology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1474424

The secret meal of Antarctic mesopelagic fish (Myctophidae: Electrona) revealed by multimarker metabarcoding The secret meal of Antarctic myctophids

Provisionally accepted
Micaela B. Ruiz Micaela B. Ruiz 1,2,3*Ryan A. Saunders Ryan A. Saunders 4Geraint A. Tarling Geraint A. Tarling 4Ayla Murray Ayla Murray 2Florian Leese Florian Leese 1Charlotte Havermans Charlotte Havermans 2,3
  • 1 Aquatic Ecosystem Research, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 2 ARJEL - Benthic Ecology, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany
  • 3 FB2, BreMarE – Bremen Marine Ecology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
  • 4 NERC, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In the Southern Ocean, myctophids are the most successful pelagic fish group in terms of diversity, biomass, and abundance. They play a crucial role in linking primary consumers and coupling carbon flux between surface and mesopelagic depths. Understanding their trophodynamics is key to assessing pelagic ecosystem resilience under environmental change. Conventional stomach content analyses indicate that myctophids predominantly feed on crustaceans, such as copepods and euphausiids, but are less effective at detecting easily digestible, soft-bodied organisms like gelatinous zooplankton (GZP) and pteropods. This study used multimarker (COI Leray-XT and 18S v1-v2) DNA metabarcoding to analyze the diets of two abundant myctophids in the Scotia Sea, Electrona antarctica and Electrona carlsbergi. We found a diverse diet dominated by copepods and euphausiids, followed by pteropods and GZP in terms of frequency of occurrence and relative read abundances. Within the GZP, salps and appendicularians were major components of the diet for E. carlsbergi, while hydrozoans were prominent in E. antarctica. With regards seasonal and spatial variability in the dietary contribution of GZP, E. carlsbergi consumed primarily appendicularians, chaetognaths, and hydrozoans during spring ( 2006) in the northern region, and more salps (predominantly Ilhea racovitzai) and other cnidarians in autumn (2009) in the southern region. Our study reveals the dietary diversity of myctophid fish as well as the importance GZP consumption as a key trophic pathway in the Southern Ocean.

    Keywords: eDNA, salps, soft-bodied prey, Southern Ocean, Stomach content, Trophodynamics

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 24 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ruiz, Saunders, Tarling, Murray, Leese and Havermans. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Micaela B. Ruiz, Aquatic Ecosystem Research, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, 47057, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

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