Comparative study on the effects of two diatoms as diets on planktonic calanoid and benthic harpacticoid copepods

Two diatoms, Chaetoceros muelleri and Nitzschia closterium f. minutissima, were used for rearing nauplii to adults of Tigriopus japonicus, Acartia pacifica, and Pseudodiaptomus annandalei at different concentrations. The survival rates to adults and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) of the adult copepods were measured. The results showed that when fed on N. closterium f. minutissima, A. pacifica was unable to complete naupliar development; while SOD and GST activities of P. annandalei fed N. closterium f. minutissima were significantly higher than those fed the control algae Isochrysis galbana (Prymnesiod), suggesting this diatom species is harmful to these calanoid copepods. The survival rates of T. japonicus were very high when fed N. closterium f. minutissima, indicating that T. japonicus has high acceptance to diatoms. To evaluate whether calanoid copepod had the capacity to acclimatize to diatoms, P. annandalei was cultured for four generations on the two diatoms at 1.7 μgC/ml and survival rates as well as SOD and GST activities were determined for each generation. It was shown that starting at the second generation, P. annandalei exhibited adaption to the diatoms with improved survival. When fed on N. closterium f. minutissima, both SOD and GST activities of P. annandalei showed a trend of decreasing with the progress of generation, whereas no significant difference was found among four generations on C. muelleri. This study demonstrates that whether a diatom species is considered harmful to copepods, which is largely species specific, and diatom concentration is an important influencing factor. Additionally, the capacity of copepod adaption to diatoms over time should not be neglected.