Does sex really matter? Explaining intraspecies variation in ocean acidification responses

Ocean acidification (OA) poses a major threat to marine ecosystems globally, having significant ecological and economic importance. The number and complexity of experiments examining the effects of OA has substantially increased over the past decade, in an attempt to address multi-stressor interacti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology letters (2005) 2017-02, Vol.13 (2), p.20160761-20160761
Main Authors: Ellis, Robert P., Davison, William, Queirós, Ana M., Kroeker, Kristy J., Calosi, Piero, Dupont, Sam, Spicer, John I., Wilson, Rod W., Widdicombe, Steve, Urbina, Mauricio A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidification
Animals
Aquatic organisms
Aquatic Organisms - physiology
Biological Sciences
Biologiska vetenskaper
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon Dioxide - physiology
Carbon Dioxide - toxicity
Climate Change
Ecological monitoring
Economic importance
Eggs
Female
Females
Gender
Hermaphroditism
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Individual Variation
Male
Males
Marine ecosystems
Natural populations
Ocean Acidification
Oceans and Seas
Reproduction
Reproduction (biology)
Reproduction - physiology
Resource allocation
Seawater - chemistry
Sex
Sex Factors
Special Feature
Species Specificity
Systematic Map
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Summary:Ocean acidification (OA) poses a major threat to marine ecosystems globally, having significant ecological and economic importance. The number and complexity of experiments examining the effects of OA has substantially increased over the past decade, in an attempt to address multi-stressor interactions and long-term responses in an increasing range of aquatic organisms. However, differences in the response of males and females to elevated pCO2 have been investigated in fewer than 4% of studies to date, often being precluded by the difficulty of determining sex non-destructively, particularly in early life stages. Here we highlight that sex can significantly impact organism responses to OA, differentially affecting physiology, reproduction, biochemistry and ultimately survival. What is more, these impacts do not always conform to ecological theory based on differential resource allocation towards reproduction, which would predict females to be more sensitive to OA owing to the higher production cost of eggs compared with sperm. Therefore, non-sex-specific studies may overlook subtle but ecologically significant differences in the responses of males and females to OA, with consequences for forecasting the fate of natural populations in a near-future ocean.
ISSN:1744-9561
1744-957X
1744-957X
DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2016.0761