Large-scale metabarcoding analysis of epipelagic and mesopelagic copepods in the Pacific

A clear insight into large-scale community structure of planktonic copepods is critical to understanding mechanisms controlling diversity and biogeography of marine taxa, owing to their high abundance, ubiquity, and sensitivity to environmental changes. Here, we applied a 28S metabarcoding approach to large-scale communities of epipelagic and mesopelagic copepods at 70 stations across the Pacific Ocean and three stations in the Arctic Ocean. Major patterns of community structure and diversity, influenced by water mass structures, agreed with results from previous morphology-based studies. However, large-scale metabarcoding approach could detected community changes even under stable environmental conditions, including changes in the north/south subtropical gyres and east/west areas within each subtropical gyre. There were strong effects of epipelagic environment on mesopelagic communities, and community subdivisions were observed in the environmentally-stable mesopelagic layer. In each s...