Southern Ocean pteropods at risk from ocean warming and acidification

Early life stages of marine calcifiers are particularly vulnerable to climate change. In the Southern Ocean aragonite undersaturation events and areas of rapid warming already occur and are predicted to increase in extent. Here, we present the first study to successfully hatch the polar pteropod Lim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine biology 2018-01, Vol.165 (1), p.8-12, Article 8
Main Authors: Gardner, Jessie, Manno, Clara, Bakker, Dorothee C. E., Peck, Victoria L., Tarling, Geraint A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidification
Aragonite
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Developmental stages
Exposure
Fragility
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Global warming
Hatching
Life Sciences
Limacidae
Marine & Freshwater Sciences
Marine biology
Microbiology
Mollusks
Mortality
Observations
Ocean acidification
Ocean warming
Oceanography
Original Paper
Population viability
Recruitment
Recruitment (fisheries)
Shells
Southern Ocean
Zoology
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Summary:Early life stages of marine calcifiers are particularly vulnerable to climate change. In the Southern Ocean aragonite undersaturation events and areas of rapid warming already occur and are predicted to increase in extent. Here, we present the first study to successfully hatch the polar pteropod Limacina helicina antarctica and observe the potential impact of exposure to increased temperature and aragonite undersaturation resulting from ocean acidification (OA) on the early life stage survival and shell morphology. High larval mortality (up to 39%) was observed in individuals exposed to perturbed conditions. Warming and OA induced extensive shell malformation and dissolution, respectively, increasing shell fragility. Furthermore, shell growth decreased, with variation between treatments and exposure time. Our results demonstrate that short-term exposure through passing through hotspots of OA and warming poses a serious threat to pteropod recruitment and long-term population viability.
ISSN:0025-3162
1432-1793
DOI:10.1007/s00227-017-3261-3