Distinct latitudinal community patterns of Arctic marine vertebrates along the East Greenlandic coast detected by environmental DNA

Abstract

Aim Greenland is one of the places on Earth where the effects of climate change are most evident. The retreat of sea ice has made East Greenland more accessible for longer periods during the year. East Greenland fjords have been notoriously difficult to study due to their remoteness, dense sea ice conditions and lack of infrastructure. As a result, biological monitoring across latitudinal gradients is scarce in East Greenland and relies on sporadic research cruises and trawl data from commercial vessels. We here aim to investigate the transition in fish and marine mammal communities from South to Northeast Greenland using environmental DNA (eDNA). Location South to Northeast Greenland. Methods We investigated the transition in fish and marine mammal communities from South to Northeast Greenland using eDNA metabarcoding of seawater samples. We included both surface and mesopelagic samples, collected over approximately 2400 km waterway distance, by sampling from Cape Farewell to Ella Island in August 2021. Results We demonstrate a clear transition in biological communities from south to northeast, with detected fish and mammal species matching known distributions. Samples from the southern areas were dominated by capelin (Mallotus villosus) and redfish (Sebastes), whereas northeastern samples were dominated by polar cod (Boreogadus saida), sculpins (Myoxocephalus) and ringed seal (Pusa hispida). We provide newly generated 12S rRNA barcodes from 87 fish species, bringing the public DNA database closer to full taxonomic coverage for Greenlandic fish species for this locus. Main Conclusions Our results demonstrate that eDNA sampling can detect latitudinal shifts in marine biological communities of the Arctic region, which can supplement traditional fish surveys in understanding species distributions and community compositions of marine vertebrates. Importantly, sampling of eDNA can be a feasible approach for detecting northward range expansions in remote areas as climate change progresses.

Arctic nekton uncovered by eDNA metabarcoding: Diversity, potential range expansions, and pelagic‐benthic coupling

“…Hence, we can expect our eDNA detections to be recent and to originate from the area where it was released. In addition, our results are in line with the literature suggesting that eDNA metabarcoding can be used to elucidate potential range expansions in the Arctic (Jensen et al, 2023). The 12S primer for fish ( teleo ) did not differentiate all taxa to species level.…”

Fine-scale oceanographic processes shape marine biodiversity patterns in the Galápagos Islands

“…Many eDNA surveys have found biogeographic regionalization, particularly changes in community structure (beta diversity) in marine ecosystems (28)(29)(30)(31)(32) . However, other studies have shown that marine fish communities can also have homogenous community structure, even across large (>1000 km) distances (33)(34)(35) .…”

Environmental DNA metabarcoding reveals seasonal and spatial variation in the vertebrate fauna of Ilulissat Icefjord, Greenland

“…The sequences were then taxonomically classified using the R package 'taxizedb' (Chamberlain & Arendsee 2021), only including hits with 100% query coverage and similarity > 98%. Sequences were also searched against a local database, which included early access to reference sequences produced by Jensen et al (2023) and sequences produced by Jensen et al (2022). Taxonomic assignment of the sequences was then updated when pertinent.…”