The key idea of this project is to use sedaDNA to examine past microeukaryotic and meiofaunal diversity changes in order to better understand the present responses of marine biodiversity to global warming.
The main objectives of the project are:
The integration of metabarcoding datasets and palaeoceanographic data will serve to test the following hypotheses:
The figure below illustrates the main idea of the project advocating the use of sedaDNA as a novel tool to investigate marine biodiversity response to environmental change and its impact on carbon burial.
The innovative character of the project consists in integrating multitaxon analysis of sedaDNA with the existing palaeoceanographic proxies in order to reconstruct changes in eukaryotic biodiversity during the postglacial period. By analyzing millions of DNA sequences archived in the sediments we will provide a geological context (baseline information) for the impact of climate change on Nordic Seas biodiversity, information essential for providing an economic and social framework to address ongoing and future climate and ecosystem change in the Nordic Seas.
The Nordic Seas are located within the main gateway of surface and deep water exchange between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans (Hansen & Østerhus, 2000). The variation of this water exchange was a key factor responsible for the largest climate changes since the last glaciation, e.g. Younger Dryas (Broecker et al., 2006) and Little Ice Age (Wanamaker et al., 2012). In this specific setting, even small variations in the current system are expected to give large and distinct variation in palaeoceaonographic parameters.
The study area covers the Nordic Seas and stretches from Svalbard, over the east Greenland shelf, to the Jan Mayen shelf. Each of regions will be sampled for water, surface sediment and sediment cores.
Some part of material for this project, consisting of four sediment cores, has already been collected during the sampling campaigns of R/V Oceania in 2017-2018, sliced and stored frozen at IOPAN. The preliminary investigation of these cores revealed no signs of sediment redeposition. Additional water column samples and sediment cores with intact sediment-water interfaces will be collected in the same areas during the annual R/V Oceania cruises in summer 2020 and 2021.
In total, we are planning to collect 360 (24 stations x 3 levels x 5 replicates) water samples and 120 (24 stations x 5 replicates) surface sediment samples for the analysis of modern Nordic Sea biodiversity and eDNA taphonomy (WP1). In addition, two new cores will be collected in the areas of east Greenland shelf and Jan Mayen shelf, for which only one core has been collected until now. For each core, we plan to analyse 50 samples, taken every 5 cm. In total, 300 sediment samples (6 cores x 50 samples) will be analysed for the paleogenomic study.
Prof. Jan Pawłowski (IOPAN)
The aim of this WP is to compile a reference database of Nordic Seas DNA metabarcodes and to better understand the eDNA taphonomy related to the transfer of plankton DNA to the sediments.
Recent development of DNA metabarcoding led to spectacular accumulation of metabarcoding data, especially for microbial and meiofaunal biomes. However, despite rapidly increasing number of DNA metabarcodes, their taxonomic assignment is still very limited. The large proportion of metabarcodes remains unassigned even at higher taxonomic level, impeding their ecological interpretation and sometimes making it difficult to distinguish between planktonic and benthic taxa. To overcome this issue, we propose to establish a reference database of barcodes obtained from morphospecies known to be present in the Nordic Seas and metabarcodes obtained in this and other eDNA studies from the same area. We will target selected taxonomic groups that are of particular interest to this study, e.g. foraminifera, diatoms, and copepods. Moreover, we will assign metabarcodes to plankton and benthic community, based on their occurrence and relative frequency in water column and sediment DNA datasets. We expect that this will help to better understand the taphonomic processes involved in a transfer of DNA from water column to the sediment, and to determine whether all planktonic taxa are equally recorded in sedimentary DNA. Answering this question is essential for a proper analysis of paleo-metabarcodes that will be conducted in WP3.
Dr Magdalena Łącka (IOPAN), dr Margit Simon (NORCE)
The aim of this WP is to identify postglacial sea surface temperature, sea ice cover and water mass change in the sediment cores used for the paleogenomic analyses. A special focus will be on investigating the impact of climate-induced environmental changes on productivity and the carbon burial rates. This will provide the paleoceanographic/paleoclimatic context for comparison with the biodiversity assessment in WP3.
The postglacial world is characterised by a shift from cold glacial conditions to a warmer interglacial state, punctuated by rapid climate shifts. In the Nordic Seas, this shift has been reflected by increasing sea surface temperatures, reduced sea ice cover, and a decrease in productivity in the ice-free areas. Very little is known about how marine biodiversity responds to such major productivity, sea ice and temperature changes over different (e.g. millennial to centennial) timescales, yet these are likely major drivers for biodiversity change. This WP aims to document paleoceanographic change to explore potential environmental drivers behind biodiversity change (WP3) and reveal postglacial productivity and carbon burial rates changes.
Dr Joanna Pawłowska (IOPAN), dr Jessica Ray Louise (NORCE)
The aim of this WP is to unveil patterns of marine biodiversity changes in postglacial Nordic Seas, based on analysis of sedaDNA metabarcodes.
The impact of climate changes on Arctic marine biodiversity is studied mainly on large emblematic animals and some macrofauna indicator species. Much less is known about the response of small-size microbial and meiofauna communities, which are essential for ecosystem functioning. Moreover, tracing biodiversity changes in the past was limited to taxa that have fossil record, ignoring large variety of non-fossilized species. Here, we will overcome these limitations by analyzing sedaDNA from the Nordic Seas. Based on previous studies conducted in this area we assume that downcore sediments contain DNA archives of organisms living there in the past, both at the sea bottom and water column. We will taxonomically assign obtained paleo-metabarcodes based on reference metabarcode database from water and surface sediment samples obtained in WP1. Then, we will correlate the occurrences of certain metabarcodes to environmental changes revealed by sedimentary, microfossil and geochemical records inferred in WP2.
The WP 4 will be dedicated to scientific oversight and dissemination of results. The overall oversight of the project includes implementation of the project and ensuring that it meets its objectives within the planned schedule and budget limits, project reporting, collecting WPs outcomes and organizing projects meetings. The meetings will be organized once a year, starting by a kick-off meeting to be held in IOPAN in June 2020. During the meetings, all participants will be invited to present their results and discuss potential challenges. The meetings will allow to coordinate activities within different WPs, plan the logistics of field expeditions and lab experiments. The project PIs will evaluate the project progress, perform quality control of work package tasks, assess the potential risks and propose prevention strategies. At the end of the project, a scientific conference will be organized to present its results and discuss the development of paleogenomics with other specialists in the field.
The results of the project will be of a potential interest to different audiences:
We will use different ways of communication to reach out to each group. All the data collected during the project will be made available to the scientific community by deposition in public data repositories, publication of peer-reviewed papers, conference presentations and creation of dedicated data bases. The special attention will be paid to the transfer of knowledge, expertise and skills between academia and non-academic sectors to gain a new perspective on possible directions and approaches for research. Results will be presented in the conferences integrating research community and policy makers such as Arctic Frontiers Conference, Polar (SCAR & IASC Conference), Arctic Science Summit Week, to support beneficial collaborations between research institutions, businesses and the public sector.
The dissemination of project results will also aim to increase the general public awareness of the consequences of global warming impact on Arctic marine ecosystems. The dissemination activities will include publishing popular science articles and presenting the lectures for general audience. The internet-based tools will be used to reach wider public. The communication plan includes:
The project is funded from Norway Grants in the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme
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