Effects of increased sea water concentrations of CO2 on growth of the bivalve Mytilus edulis L

It has been proposed that emission of anthropogenic carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will lead to increased concentrations of CO(2) in sea water corresponding to a decrease of pH of several tenths of pH units. An experiment was performed to test the effects of increased sea water concentrations of C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemosphere (Oxford) 2006, Vol.62 (4), p.681-687
Main Authors: BERGE, John Arthur, BJERKENG, Birger, PETTERSEN, Oddbjørn, SCHAANNING, Morten T, ØXNEVAD, Sigurd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Bivalvia
Carbon Dioxide - pharmacology
Carbon Dioxide - toxicity
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Greenhouse Effect
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Invertebrates
Marine
Mollusca
Mortality
Mytilus edulis
Mytilus edulis - drug effects
Mytilus edulis - growth & development
Seawater
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Summary:It has been proposed that emission of anthropogenic carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will lead to increased concentrations of CO(2) in sea water corresponding to a decrease of pH of several tenths of pH units. An experiment was performed to test the effects of increased sea water concentrations of CO(2) on shell growth of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis. The experiment was performed in aquaria continuously flushed with sea water spiked with CO(2) to provide five different levels of pH between 6.7 and control sea water with a pH of 8.1. The shell length of the mussels was measured at the start and end of the 44 days experimental period. No mortality was observed during the first 23 days of the experiment. The growth increment in mm was much larger for small mussels than for large mussels, but relative growth profile as function of pH was more similar in the two size groups; observed differences may be random variation between samples. The experiments showed that CO(2) induced reduction of pH affects the growth of M. edulis negatively. There was a strong and statistically significant decrease in growth at the lowest pH values, with virtually no growth at pH = 6.7 and reduced growth at pH = 7.1. The effect seems to set in between pH 7.4 and 7.1; at mean pH levels 7.4 and 7.6 the growth increments were not significantly different from growth at normal pH 8.1.
ISSN:0045-6535
1879-1298
DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.04.111