Abstract
Ocean acidification (OA) is not an isolated threat, but acts in concert with other impacts on ecosystems and species. Coastal marine invertebrates will have to face the synergistic interactions of OA with other global and local stressors. One local factor, common in coastal environments, is trace element contamination. CO2 vent sites are extensively studied in the context of OA and are often considered analogous to the oceans in the next few decades. The CO2 vent found at Levante Bay (Vulcano, NE Sicily, Italy) also releases high concentrations of trace elements to its surrounding seawater, and is therefore a unique site to examine the effects of long-term exposure of nearby organisms to high pCO2 and trace element enrichment in situ. The sea anemone Anemonia viridis is prevalent next to the Vulcano vent and does not show signs of trace element poisoning/stress. The aim of our study was to compare A. viridis trace element profiles and compartmentalization between high pCO2 and control environments. Rather than examining whole anemone tissue, we analyzed two different body compartments—the pedal disc and the tentacles, and also examined the distribution of trace elements in the tentacles between the animal and the symbiotic algae. We found dramatic changes in trace element tissue concentrations between the high pCO2/high trace element and control sites, with strong accumulation of iron, lead, copper and cobalt, but decreased concentrations of cadmium, zinc and arsenic proximate to the vent. The pedal disc contained substantially more trace elements than the anemone’s tentacles, suggesting the pedal disc may serve as a detoxification/storage site for excess trace elements. Within the tentacles, the various trace elements displayed different partitioning patterns between animal tissue and algal symbionts. At both sites iron was found primarily in the algae, whereas cadmium, zinc and arsenic were primarily found in the animal tissue. Our data suggests that A. viridis regulates its internal trace element concentrations by compartmentalization and excretion and that these features contribute to its resilience and potential success at the trace element-rich high pCO2 vent.
Highlights
Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions drive ongoing ocean acidification (OA) and place marine ecosystems at a vulnerable state (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2012)
The suspended particulate material collected in a net tow (>100 μm), composed mostly of zooplankton, some of which A. viridis may prey upon, contained more trace elements next to
The shallow CO2 vents at Levante Bay of Vulcano Island are intensively studied within the frame of OA research
Summary
Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions drive ongoing ocean acidification (OA) and place marine ecosystems at a vulnerable state (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2012). Natural CO2 vents in sub-tropical coastal areas are recognized as natural laboratories to study long-term effects of elevated pCO2 (pH) across many biological and spatial scales (Hall-Spencer et al, 2008; Kroeker et al, 2011; Meron et al, 2012) Such a location exists in the Levante Bay of Vulcano Island (Italy) in the Mediterranean Sea, where several studies have examined physiological responses of marine organisms to OA conditions (Johnson et al, 2011; Arnold et al, 2012; Johnson et al, 2012; Lidbury et al, 2012; Suggett et al, 2012; Calosi et al, 2013; Borell et al, 2014). This unique site, offers conditions of long term exposure of the biota to a myriad of trace metals (which we will refer to as trace elements hereon) and OA-like conditions, a situation that is hard to replicate in a laboratory study
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