Presenter: Marijana Hure (University of Dubrovnik, Institute for Marine and Coastal Research)

Description:
Calanoid copepods are crucial components of mesozooplankton and pelagic ecosystems in general, showing high biological and ecological diversity. Due to diminishing number of taxonomical experts, investigations of zooplankton in recent times are concentrated onto small number of relatively large and easily identifiable species. Consequently, actual copepod diversity is often underestimated in oceanographic and ecological studies. Of the total of 185 Calanoida species in the Mediterranean, only 32 species (17%) have Mediterranean Sea-collected COI barcodes (WGIMT/MZGdb Atlas v2.01). The “SpaTeGen” project is aiming at overcoming these limitations by producing a database of genetic barcodes (18S-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-28S and COI) of the Adriatic calanoid copepods. Here we present preliminary data on the first project year, which includes COI and 18S-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-28S sequences of more than 20 Adriatic calanoid species, sequence properties as well as potential metabarcoding target sites. The aim is to produce at least 40 barcodes per project year, ending in almost all Adriatic calanoid copepods barcoded by 2026. In order to collect Adriatic calanoid copepods the sampling will cover wide spatial area, including characteristic coastal eastern Adriatic systems as well as its shallow northern and deep southern part up to 1200 m depth. Keywords: biodiversity, DNA barcode, Mediterranean Sea, mesozooplankton