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Acclimation to ocean acidification during long‐term<scp><scp>CO2</scp></scp>exposure in the cold‐water coral<scp>L</scp>ophelia pertusa
- Source :
- Global Change Biology, 18 (3). pp. 843-853., Global Change Biology
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2011.
-
Abstract
- Ocean acidity has increased by 30% since preindustrial times due to the uptake of anthropogenic CO2 and is projected to rise by another 120% before 2100 if CO2 emissions continue at current rates. Ocean acidification is expected to have wide-ranging impacts on marine life, including reduced growth and net erosion of coral reefs. Our present understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification on marine life, however, relies heavily on results from short-term CO2 perturbation studies. Here, we present results from the first long-term CO2 perturbation study on the dominant reef-building cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa and relate them to results from a short-term study to compare the effect of exposure time on the coral's responses. Short-term (1 week) high CO2 exposure resulted in a decline of calcification by 26–29% for a pH decrease of 0.1 units and net dissolution of calcium carbonate. In contrast, L. pertusa was capable to acclimate to acidified conditions in long-term (6 months) incubations, leading to even slightly enhanced rates of calcification. Net growth is sustained even in waters sub-saturated with respect to aragonite. Acclimation to seawater acidification did not cause a measurable increase in metabolic rates. This is the first evidence of successful acclimation in a coral species to ocean acidification, emphasizing the general need for long-term incubations in ocean acidification research. To conclude on the sensitivity of cold-water coral reefs to future ocean acidification further ecophysiological studies are necessary which should also encompass the role of food availability and rising temperatures.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Coral
Climate change
engineering.material
01 natural sciences
Acclimatization
Lophelia
Environmental Chemistry
14. Life underwater
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
General Environmental Science
Global and Planetary Change
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Ecology
biology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Aragonite
fungi
Ocean acidification
Coral reef
biology.organism_classification
Oceanography
13. Climate action
engineering
Environmental science
Seawater
geographic locations
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13652486 and 13541013
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Global Change Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e91e1a4d3f4545576fef37d4469010c8
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02583.x