Abstract
Ocean acidification represents a threat to marine species worldwide, and forecasting the ecological impacts of acidification is a high priority for science, management, and policy. As research on the topic expands at an exponential rate, a comprehensive understanding of the variability in organisms' responses and corresponding levels of certainty is necessary to forecast the ecological effects. Here, we perform the most comprehensive meta-analysis to date by synthesizing the results of 228 studies examining biological responses to ocean acidification. The results reveal decreased survival, calcification, growth, development and abundance in response to acidification when the broad range of marine organisms is pooled together. However, the magnitude of these responses varies among taxonomic groups, suggesting there is some predictable trait-based variation in sensitivity, despite the investigation of approximately 100 new species in recent research. The results also reveal an enhanced sensitivity of mollusk larvae, but suggest that an enhanced sensitivity of early life history stages is not universal across all taxonomic groups. In addition, the variability in species' responses is enhanced when they are exposed to acidification in multi-species assemblages, suggesting that it is important to consider indirect effects and exercise caution when forecasting abundance patterns from single-species laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the results suggest that other factors, such as nutritional status or source population, could cause substantial variation in organisms' responses. Last, the results highlight a trend towards enhanced sensitivity to acidification when taxa are concurrently exposed to elevated seawater temperature.
Highlights
Ocean acidification is projected to impact all areas of the ocean, from the deep sea to coastal estuaries (Orr et al, 2005; Feely et al, 2009, 2010), with potentially wide-ranging impacts on marine life (Doney et al, 2009)
We identified studies that measured any biological response to ocean acidification published from 1 January 2010 to 1 January 2012 by searching ISI web of science and the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) blog, as well as the literature cited of the identified studies, resulting in 403 published studies
Survival and calcification are the responses most affected by acidification, with 27% reductions in both responses, whereas growth and development are reduced by approximately 11–19%, respectively, for conditions roughly representing year 2100 scenarios
Summary
Ocean acidification is projected to impact all areas of the ocean, from the deep sea to coastal estuaries (Orr et al, 2005; Feely et al, 2009, 2010), with potentially wide-ranging impacts on marine life (Doney et al, 2009). Over 403 studies investigating ocean acidification have been published since the beginning of 2010, which more than triples the number of studies included in any previous meta-analysis of its impacts (Hendriks et al, 2010; Kroeker et al, 2010; Liu et al, 2010) These new studies provide an important opportunity to expand our understanding of species vulnerability and resilience to ocean acidification by including a broader array of species in the analyzes, as well as an opportunity to test the robustness of the patterns found in previous analyzes and highlight new insights
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