Ocean warming and acidification prevent compensatory response in a predator to reduced prey quality

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 563:111-122 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11956 Ocean warming and acidification prevent compensatory response in a predator to reduced prey quality Ben P. Harvey1,3,*, Pippa J. Moore1,2 1Institute of Biological, Environmental, and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DA, UK 2Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research, Edith Cowan University, Perth 6027, Australia 3Present address: Shimoda Marine Research Center, University of Tsukuba, 5-10-1 Shimoda, Shizuoka 415-0025, Japan *Corresponding author: harvey.benjaminpaul@gmail.com ABSTRACT: While there is increasing evidence for the impacts of climate change at the individual level, much less is known about how species’ likely idiosyncratic responses may alter ecological interactions. Here, we demonstrate that ocean acidification and warming not only directly alter species’ (individual) physiological performance, but also their predator-prey dynamics. Our results demonstrate that tissue production (used as a proxy for prey quality) in the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides was reduced under scenarios of future climate change, and hence their ability to support energy acquisition for dogwhelk Nucella lapillus through food provision was diminished. However, rather than increasing their feeding rates as a compensatory mechanism, consumption rates of N. lapillus were reduced to the point that they exhibited starvation (a loss of somatic tissue), despite prey resources remaining abundant. The resilience of any marine organism to stressors is fundamentally linked to their ability to obtain and assimilate energy. Therefore, our findings suggest that the cost of living under future climate change may surpass the energy intake from consumption rates, which is likely exacerbated through the bottom-up effects of reduced prey quality. If, as our results suggest, changes in trophic transfer of energy are more common in a warmer, high CO2 world, such alterations to the predator-prey dynamic may have negative consequences for the acquisition of energy in the predator and result in energetic trade-offs. Given the importance of predator-prey interactions in structuring marine communities, future climate change is likely to have major consequences for community composition and the structure and function of ecosystems. KEY WORDS: Predator-prey · Climate change · Ocean warming · Ocean acidification · Trophic interactions · Ecological interactions · Compensatory Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Harvey BP, Moore PJ (2017) Ocean warming and acidification prevent compensatory response in a predator to reduced prey quality. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 563:111-122. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11956 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 563. Online publication date: January 20, 2017 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.