Abstract
Climate change processes are warming, acidifying, and promoting a reduction of plankton biomass within World oceans. While the effects of these stressors on marine fish have been studied individually, their combined and interactive impacts remain unclear. Here we present experiments investigating the interactive effects of increased pCO2, temperature, and food-limitation on the early life history traits of two species of marine schooling fish native to Northeast US estuaries, Menidia beryllina (inland silverside) and Cyprinodon variegatus (sheepshead minnow). While each stressor significantly altered hatching times, growth rates, and/or survival of fish, significant interactions between stressors resulted in impacts that could not have been predicted based upon exposures to individual stressors. Fish that were unaffected by high pCO2 when reared at ideal temperatures experienced significant declines in survivorship when exposed to elevated pCO2 at temperatures above or below their thermal optimum. Similarly, fish provided with less food were more vulnerable to elevated pCO2 than fish provided with adequate nutrition. These findings highlight the significance of incorporating multiple stressors in studies investigating the impacts of climate change stressors on marine life. Collectively, these results suggest that climate change stressors may interact to synergistically suppress the productivity of fisheries in coastal ecosystems and that these effects may intensify as climate changes continue.
Highlights
Climate change is altering multiple aspects of the World’s oceans (Doney et al, 2012; Poloczanska et al, 2013)
As CO2 enters the ocean it reacts with water forming carbonic acid (H2CO3), which quickly disassociates into bicarbonate (HCO−3 ) releasing a hydrogen ion (H+) that reduces ocean pH and subsequently sequesters carbonate ions (CO23−), a process commonly known as ocean
There was a significant (p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA) effect of pCO2 on final size of fish within the warm temperature treatment only (e.g., 30◦C), with fish exposed to elevated pCO2 displaying a 15 ± 0.1% reduction in total length relative to ambient pCO2-treatment fish there was no interaction with temperature (p < 0.001, Holm-Sidak, Figure 1D)
Summary
Climate change is altering multiple aspects of the World’s oceans (Doney et al, 2012; Poloczanska et al, 2013). World oceans have absorbed nearly a third of all anthropogenically-derived CO2 (Sabine et al, 2004). Multiple Stressors Negatively Affect Fish acidification (Sabine et al, 2004). The pH within the sea surface has decreased ∼0.1 units and is predicted to decrease an additional 0.2–0.3 units by the end of this century if CO2 emissions continue (Heogh-Guldberg et al, 2014). Mean surface-ocean temperatures have risen ∼1◦C and are predicted to increase and additional 2–4◦C depending on the rate of future CO2 emissions (Solomon, 2007; IPCC, 2014)
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