Effect of ocean acidification on the early life stages of clingfish, Lepadogaster lepadogaster

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Effect of ocean acidification on the early life stages of clingfish, Lepadogaster lepadogaster Sara Martins1, Ana F. Lopes1, Emanuel J. Gonçalves1 and Ana M. Faria1* 1 MARE ISPA, Portugal Ocean acidification, caused by elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), is recognized as a serious threat to marine ecosystems. Most studies have focused on marine calcifying organisms, due to their dependence on calcium carbonate, and less attention has been given to fish. However, recent studies on the early life stages of fishes suggest that behavior, growth, development and otolith size may be highly affected by ocean acidification. Other studies fail to find any detectable effect of exposure to high CO2 levels. These contradictory results suggest species-specific sensitivities to increasing concentrations of CO2 and point to a need of further research on phylogenetically diverse species. In this study we tested the effects of CO2-induced ocean acidification on the early life stages of a temperate marine fish, the clingfish Lepadogaster lepadogaster, by rearing larvae since hatching in control and high pCO2 conditions. Size-at-age metrics and otolith size were examined in pre-settlement stage larvae. Additionally, the behavioural response to a predator odour was tested, as is key behavior to predator avoidance and survival, and is one of the most commonly affected behaviors in marine fishes exposed to high CO2 levels. Larvae in the acidified treatment tended to be slightly larger than fish reared at control CO2 levels, but effects weren’t statistically significant. Exposure to high CO2 did not affect olfactory preferences either. These results suggest that early life stages of clingfish might be resilient to future scenarios of ocean acidification. Clingfish is a benthic spawner that inhabit the intertidal rock pools, which is a habitat with considerable short term natural variation in pH, and may thus be expected to show some tolerance to varying CO2 levels. Acknowledgements This work was supported by a post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/68673/2010), project ACIDLARVAE (PTDC/MAR-EST/4627/2012) and through the strategic project (UID/MAR/04292/2013) granted to MARE, all financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Keywords: ocean acidification, cling fish, larval development, otolith, Olfactory preference Conference: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016, Peniche, Portugal, 14 Jul - 15 Jul, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster presentation Topic: Biodiversity, Conservation and Coastal Management Citation: Martins S, Lopes AF, Gonçalves EJ and Faria AM (2016). Effect of ocean acidification on the early life stages of clingfish, Lepadogaster lepadogaster . Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.04.00096 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 03 May 2016; Published Online: 13 Jul 2016. * Correspondence: PhD. Ana M Faria, MARE ISPA, Lisboa, 1149-041, Portugal, AFaria@ispa.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Sara Martins Ana F Lopes Emanuel J Gonçalves Ana M Faria Google Sara Martins Ana F Lopes Emanuel J Gonçalves Ana M Faria Google Scholar Sara Martins Ana F Lopes Emanuel J Gonçalves Ana M Faria PubMed Sara Martins Ana F Lopes Emanuel J Gonçalves Ana M Faria Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.