Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (2): 17-25.doi: 10.11978/2017058CSTR: 32234.14.2017058

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

In situ feeding of copepodites in the water near Daya Bay nuclear power plant

Cuilian XU1,2(), Tao LI1,3, Simin HU1, Youjun WANG1,2, Hui HUANG1,3, Sheng LIU1()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Tropical Marine Biological Research Station in Hainan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya 572000, China
  • Received:2017-05-21 Revised:2017-08-14 Online:2018-04-10 Published:2018-04-11
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Project (2016YFC0502805);Science and Technology Planning Projects of Guangdong Province, China (2015A020216013);Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA13020100);National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Program) (2015CB452904);National Natural Science Foundation of China (41276160);Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2017B030314052)

Abstract:

Copepods play important roles in maintaining the structure of marine ecosystem due to their key position in food chain and their numerous species, quantities and wide distribution. The nutrients obtained by copepod larvae can directly affect their development, then the complement of adult copepods and even their population stability. In this study, in situ feeding of copepodites was evaluated by molecular methods in the waters near the nuclear power plant in Daya Bay (S1: control station, S2: outfall station) in summer 2015. The results showed that 16 prey species in total were identified in both stations, including diatoms (11 species), tunicate (two species), fungi (one species), ichthyosporea (one species), and oomycetes (one species). Diatoms (47.30%) and tunicate (41.89%) were the most abundant food types revealed by the significant proportion of the clones. Similar feeding diversity was discovered in copepodites at S1 and S2, with nine prey species at S1 and 10 at S2, but significant differences in diet composition were revealed, with metazoan (61.54%) and diatoms (68.57%) dominating the diets of copepodites at S1 and S2, respectively. In addition, copepodites appeared to be more herbivorous at S2 with a lower Omnivory Index (0.31) than at S1 (0.72). These results suggested that copepodites could optimize their diet composition by consuming a reasonable percentage of animal and plant materials according to available food sources. More phytoplankton, especially diatoms as diet of copepodites at the outfall station implied that copepodites might change their feeding habits with global warming development.

Key words: Daya Bay, copepodites, feeding, diversity, increased temperature