Domenech Ramos, Jean P.

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    Autecology and genetic diversity of 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘴 copepods in coastal hypersaline lagoons of Puerto Rico
    (2023-05-11) Domenech Ramos, Jean P.; Schizas, Nikolaos V.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Weil Machado, Ernesto; Alfaro Lozano, Mónica; Department of Marine Sciences; Santos Flores, Carlos J.
    Copepods of the Cletocamptus genus inhabit coastal saline lagoons of the greater Caribbean. They are abundantly found in southern Puerto Rico, where past studies indicate the presence of one species, C. dominicanus; but genetic and ecological studies have not been conducted. We surveyed the Cletocamptus populations of three lagoons of southwestern Puerto Rico for a year and their density ranged from 0 to 486 copepods cm-2 of sediment. Fluctuations in abundance were observed within and between lagoons through sampling times, suggesting patchy distribution. Salinity, temperature, and pH were not correlated with copepod densities, suggesting tolerance to fluctuations. Specimens were characterized by high morphological variability, motivating us to employ two molecular markers to investigate their genetic variability. The mitochondrial COI and the nuclear ribosomal 28S genes were sequenced from 130 and 118 specimens, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses indicate the presence of five lineages. Based on COI, corrected sequence divergence between lineages ranges from 13 to 43%. We used single-locus species delimitation tools (GMYC, bPTP, mPTP, ASAP, and ABGD) with COI to test for additional species, beyond the previously reported C. dominicanus. Most tests grouped taxa into five putative species. Cletocamptus spp. are often the numerically dominant benthic metazoan in these important coastal habitats and warrant taxonomic, genomic, and physiological studies to understand their adaptations to this unique environment.