Abstract
Ocean acidification (OA) is a relatively young yet rapidly developing scientific field. Assessing the potential response(s) of marine organisms to projected near-future OA scenarios has been at the forefront of scientific research, with a focus on ecosystems (e.g., coral reefs) and processes (e.g., calcification) that are deemed particularly vulnerable. Recently, a heightened emphasis has been placed on evaluating early life history stages as these stages are generally perceived to be more sensitive to environmental change. The number of acidification-related studies focused on early life stages has risen dramatically over the last several years. While early life history stages of corals have been understudied compared to other marine invertebrate taxa (e.g., echinoderms, mollusks), numerous studies exist to contribute to our status of knowledge regarding the potential impacts of OA on coral recruitment dynamics. To synthesize this information, the present paper reviews the primary literature on the effects of acidification on sexual reproduction and early stages of corals, incorporating lessons learned from more thoroughly studied taxa to both assess our current understanding of the potential impacts of OA on coral recruitment and to inform and guide future research in this area.
Highlights
Coral reefs harbor one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet in terms of species complexity [1] and are sources of vast economic wealth through a variety of ecosystem goods and services [2]
Albright and Langdon [38] showed that elevated CO2 causes changes in the epilithic algal community of settlement substrates; as pH declined, taxa known to facilitate larval settlement of some coral species (e.g., crustose coralline algae (CCA)) were replaced by alternate algal species, resulting in reduced settlement of Porites astreoides larvae
The studies reviewed here demonstrate that ocean acidification has the potential to affect sexual reproduction and multiple early life history stages of corals that are critical to reef persistence and resilience
Summary
Coral reefs harbor one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet in terms of species complexity [1] and are sources of vast economic wealth through a variety of ecosystem goods and services [2]. Successful coral recruitment, that is, the introduction and inclusion of a new individual to a population, is generally determined by three sequential life history stages: (1) larval availability (including gamete production and successful fertilization), (2) settlement ecology (related to larval and substrate condition), and (3) postsettlement ecology (growth and survival of the newly settled individual) [11]. Life history stages are thought to be vulnerable [46], and recently documented declines in the growth of Caribbean coral recruits has given rise to the speculation that climate change and ocean acidification may already be interfering with recruitment dynamics [47]. The study of ocean acidification and its effects on early life history stages of corals is relatively new. For areas that are deficient in studies and for which a robust assessment is not possible, lessons learned from studies conducted on more thoroughly studied taxa (e.g., mollusks, echinoderms) are used to supplement the coral literature and to provide guidelines for future experiments
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