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High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature

Sand lances of the genus Ammodytes are keystone forage fish in coastal ecosystems across the northern hemisphere. Because they directly support populations of higher trophic organisms such as whales, seabirds or tuna, the current lack of empirical data and, therefore, understanding about the climate...

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Autores principales: Murray, Christopher S, Wiley, David, Baumann, Hannes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6868386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31777661
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coz084
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author Murray, Christopher S
Wiley, David
Baumann, Hannes
author_facet Murray, Christopher S
Wiley, David
Baumann, Hannes
author_sort Murray, Christopher S
collection PubMed
description Sand lances of the genus Ammodytes are keystone forage fish in coastal ecosystems across the northern hemisphere. Because they directly support populations of higher trophic organisms such as whales, seabirds or tuna, the current lack of empirical data and, therefore, understanding about the climate sensitivity of sand lances represent a serious knowledge gap. Sand lances could be particularly susceptible to ocean warming and acidification because, in contrast to other tested fish species, they reproduce during boreal winter months, and their offspring develop slowly under relatively low and stable pCO(2) conditions. Over the course of 2 years, we conducted factorial pCO(2) × temperature exposure experiments on offspring of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius, a key forage species on the northwest Atlantic shelf. Wild, spawning-ripe adults were collected from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Cape Cod, USA), and fertilized embryos were reared at three pCO(2) conditions (400, 1000 and 2100 μatm) crossed with three temperatures (5, 7 and 10 ˚C). Exposure to future pCO(2) conditions consistently resulted in severely reduced embryo survival. Sensitivity to elevated pCO(2) was highest at 10 ˚C, resulting in up to an 89% reduction in hatching success between control and predicted end-of-century pCO(2) conditions. Moreover, elevated pCO(2) conditions delayed hatching, reduced remaining endogenous energy reserves at hatch and reduced embryonic growth. Our results suggest that the northern sand lance is exceptionally CO(2)-sensitive compared to other fish species. Whether other sand lance species with similar life history characteristics are equally CO(2)-sensitive is currently unknown. But the possibility is a conservation concern, because many boreal shelf ecosystems rely on sand lances and might therefore be more vulnerable to climate change than currently recognized. Our findings indicate that life history, spawning habitat, phenology and developmental rates mediate the divergent early life CO(2) sensitivities among fish species.
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spelling pubmed-68683862019-11-27 High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature Murray, Christopher S Wiley, David Baumann, Hannes Conserv Physiol Research Article Sand lances of the genus Ammodytes are keystone forage fish in coastal ecosystems across the northern hemisphere. Because they directly support populations of higher trophic organisms such as whales, seabirds or tuna, the current lack of empirical data and, therefore, understanding about the climate sensitivity of sand lances represent a serious knowledge gap. Sand lances could be particularly susceptible to ocean warming and acidification because, in contrast to other tested fish species, they reproduce during boreal winter months, and their offspring develop slowly under relatively low and stable pCO(2) conditions. Over the course of 2 years, we conducted factorial pCO(2) × temperature exposure experiments on offspring of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius, a key forage species on the northwest Atlantic shelf. Wild, spawning-ripe adults were collected from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Cape Cod, USA), and fertilized embryos were reared at three pCO(2) conditions (400, 1000 and 2100 μatm) crossed with three temperatures (5, 7 and 10 ˚C). Exposure to future pCO(2) conditions consistently resulted in severely reduced embryo survival. Sensitivity to elevated pCO(2) was highest at 10 ˚C, resulting in up to an 89% reduction in hatching success between control and predicted end-of-century pCO(2) conditions. Moreover, elevated pCO(2) conditions delayed hatching, reduced remaining endogenous energy reserves at hatch and reduced embryonic growth. Our results suggest that the northern sand lance is exceptionally CO(2)-sensitive compared to other fish species. Whether other sand lance species with similar life history characteristics are equally CO(2)-sensitive is currently unknown. But the possibility is a conservation concern, because many boreal shelf ecosystems rely on sand lances and might therefore be more vulnerable to climate change than currently recognized. Our findings indicate that life history, spawning habitat, phenology and developmental rates mediate the divergent early life CO(2) sensitivities among fish species. Oxford University Press 2019-11-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6868386/ /pubmed/31777661 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coz084 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for Experimental Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Murray, Christopher S
Wiley, David
Baumann, Hannes
High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title_full High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title_fullStr High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title_full_unstemmed High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title_short High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO(2) and temperature
title_sort high sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated co(2) and temperature
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6868386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31777661
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coz084
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