Ecological Dynamics and Genetic Diversity of Brine Shrimp Species

Brine shrimps (genus Artemia) inhabit hypersaline environments worldwide, where they function as keystone grazers and model extremophiles. Their life cycle alternates between free‐swimming nauplii and highly resistant cysts, enabling survival through severe dehydration and salinity extremes. Ecologically, Artemia regulate primary production by filtering phytoplankton and influence trophic interactions in salt lakes and solar salterns. They display remarkable phenotypic plasticity in response to temperature, salinity and photoperiod, with local populations adapting to narrow salinity ranges and distinct thermal regimes. Genetically, Artemia comprises sexual species and obligate parthenogenetic lineages of varying ploidy, often co‐occurring. Parthenogenetic strains derive from multiple, recent maternal origins and occasionally produce “rare males,” facilitating gene exchange with sexual relatives. Population structure is shaped by limited ongoing gene flow, regional endemism and historical dispersal via waterfowl or anthropogenic introductions. Invasive Artemia franciscana displaces native taxa in many regions, altering community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Human‐mediated habitat modification, climate change and saltern expansion continue to drive both ecological shifts and genetic restructuring, with implications for biodiversity conservation, aquaculture applications and the use of Artemia cysts as bioindicators in ecotoxicology.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Real-time oxygen measurements in a microfluidic platform have elucidated the mechanistic effects of temperature and salinity on Artemia cyst hatching. Under higher temperatures and moderate salinity, metabolic resumption accelerates while lower salinities prolong key differentiation stages, reducing hatchability. This approach offers precise control of microenvironments and can be extended to other aquatic embryos. A multi‐factorial optimisation study combined Box-Behnken and split-split-plot designs to identify the ideal photoperiod (23 h), temperature (29 °C) and salinity (28 ppt) for maximising hatching rate (96.8 %) and minimising time to emergence. Photoperiod and temperature showed the strongest effects on both hatching percentage and timing, demonstrating the power of statistical design to refine aquaculture protocols.

Ecological Dynamics and Genetic Diversity of Brine Shrimp Species publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ecological dynamics and genetic diversity of brine shrimp species across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Cyst: a dormant, encysted embryonic stage capable of withstanding extreme desiccation and salinity. Diapause: a developmental arrest in cysts that suspends metabolism until favourable conditions return. Parthenogenesis: a form of asexual reproduction in which embryos develop without fertilisation. Haplotype: a group of alleles at adjacent loci on a chromosome inherited together, used to trace maternal lineages. Phylogeography: the study of geographic distributions of genetic lineages to infer historical population processes. Osmoregulation: physiological mechanisms by which organisms maintain fluid and ion balance in hypersaline environments.

References

1. The impact of selected abiotic factors on Artemia hatching process through real-time observation of oxygen changes in a microfluidic platform. Scientific Reports (2023).
2. Functional Role of Native and Invasive Filter-Feeders, and the Effect of Parasites: Learning from Hypersaline Ecosystems. PLOS ONE (2016).
3. Multi-response optimization of Artemia hatching process using split-split-plot design based response surface methodology. Scientific Reports (2017).
4. The Brine Shrimp Artemia: Adapted to Critical Life Conditions. Frontiers in Physiology (2012).
5. Bird migratory flyways influence the phylogeography of the invasive brine shrimp Artemia franciscana in its native American range. PeerJ (2013).
6. Origin and Genetic Diversity of Diploid Parthenogenetic Artemia in Eurasia. PLOS ONE (2013).
7. Functional rare males in diploid parthenogenetic Artemia. Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2013).
8. Settling taxonomic and nomenclatural problems in brine shrimps, Artemia (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Anostraca), by integrating mitogenomics, marker discordances and nomenclature rules. PeerJ (2021).
9. The impact of one-decade ecological disturbance on genetic changes: a study on the brine shrimp Artemia urmiana from Urmia Lake, Iran. PeerJ (2019).