Parent, G. (2013). Hybridation entre Calanus finmarchicus et C. glacialis (Copepoda). [Hybridization between Calanus finmarchicus and C. glacialis (Copepoda).]. Ph.D. Thesis, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada. 110 pp. [In French; English abstract].

450127

Parent, G.

2013

110 pp. [In French; English abstract]

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Hybridization is a phenomenon observed in plants and animals which to date has never been detected in marine zooplankton. This thesis aims to characterise hybridization between Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus in order to evaluate the impact on species population dynamics in the West Atlantic. In addition, morphological and genetic identification were compared and combined to test their potential for discrimination of parental species and hybrids. In the second chapter, a great spatio-temporal variability in overlap in prosome length between C. glacialis and C. finmarchicus is shown for stage V copepodites. This overlap in prosome length has the consequence of misidentifying and thus, considerably underestimating C. glacialis’ abundance in the St. Lawrence Estuary and on the Labrador Coast. In the third chapter, it is shown that hybrids exist, and that there is substantial spatial variability in their frequency in the hybrid zone, from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to the Gulf of Maine, for the copepodite stage V. Moreover, hybrid size varied as a function of genotypic composition. In the fourth chapter is shown that hybrid adult females have an intermediate reproductive phenology to that of their parental species in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Contrastingly, fitness and phenotypes of hybrid adult females are similar to those of their maternal ancestor. Hybrids represent a small proportion of total egg production from March to July. Thus, although gene flow occurs between these species, parental species are maintained and mainly isolated temporally within the hybrid zone. The effects of hybridization on species population dynamics are probably minor. Future studies should aim to study hybridization between these species in other zones and the effects of variation in their reproductive phenology and advection on hybrid abundance. Hybridization between other marine zooplankton species is also likely.

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