Changes in fish communities due to benthic habitat shifts under ocean acidification conditions

Cattano, Carlo; Agostini, Sylvain; Harvey, Ben P.; Wada, Shigeki; Quattrocchi, Federico; Turco, Gabriele; Inaba, Kazuo; Hall‐Spencer, Jason M.; Milazzo, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138501

Cited by 33 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 80 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous studies at these two sites showed that the main driver of the difference in benthic communities between control and elevated pCO 2 sites was the increase in pCO 2 . No difference in depth, total alkalinity, and temperature were found between sites (Uthicke and Fabricius, 2012;Fabricius et al, 2014;Agostini et al, 2018;Harvey et al, 2019;Witkowski et al, 2019;Cattano et al, 2020).…”

Section: Sampling Sitesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Greater Mitochondrial Energy Production Provides Resistance to Ocean Acidification in “Winning” Hermatypic Corals

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coral communities around the world are projected to be negatively affected by ocean acidification. Not all coral species will respond in the same manner to rising CO2 levels. Evidence from naturally acidified areas such as CO2 seeps have shown that although a few species are resistant to elevated CO2, most lack sufficient resistance resulting in their decline. This has led to the simple grouping of coral species into “winners” and “losers,” but the physiological traits supporting this ecological assessment are yet to be fully understood. Here using CO2 seeps, in two biogeographically distinct regions, we investigated whether physiological traits related to energy production [mitochondrial electron transport systems (ETSAs) activities] and biomass (protein contents) differed between winning and losing species in order to identify possible physiological traits of resistance to ocean acidification and whether they can be acquired during short-term transplantations. We show that winning species had a lower biomass (protein contents per coral surface area) resulting in a higher potential for energy production (biomass specific ETSA: ETSA per protein contents) compared to losing species. We hypothesize that winning species inherently allocate more energy toward inorganic growth (calcification) compared to somatic (tissue) growth. In contrast, we found that losing species that show a higher biomass under reference pCO2 experienced a loss in biomass and variable response in area-specific ETSA that did not translate in an increase in biomass-specific ETSA following either short-term (4–5 months) or even life-long acclimation to elevated pCO2 conditions. Our results suggest that resistance to ocean acidification in corals may not be acquired within a single generation or through the selection of physiologically resistant individuals. This reinforces current evidence suggesting that ocean acidification will reshape coral communities around the world, selecting species that have an inherent resistance to elevated pCO2.

show abstract

Section: Sampling Sitesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Greater Mitochondrial Energy Production Provides Resistance to Ocean Acidification in “Winning” Hermatypic Corals

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Clearly, diatom community responses will not only be dictated by direct physiological responses to CO 2 and macronutrients [5]; they will be indirectly affected by acidification-driven impacts on grazers. Given the high grazing pressure within our reference pCO 2 site [22,51], predominantly associated with both herbivorous fish and sea urchins, it is possible that B. biddulphiana is being excluded. Our results strongly indicate that CO 2 enrichment stimulates diatom blooms and when combined with reductions in grazing pressure, allows them to become competitively dominant.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diatoms Dominate and Alter Marine Food-Webs When CO2 Rises

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diatoms are so important in ocean food-webs that any human induced changes in their abundance could have major effects on the ecology of our seas. The large chain-forming diatom Biddulphia biddulphiana greatly increases in abundance as pCO2 increases along natural seawater CO2 gradients in the north Pacific Ocean. In areas with reference levels of pCO2, it was hard to find, but as seawater carbon dioxide levels rose, it replaced seaweeds and became the main habitat-forming species on the seabed. This diatom algal turf supported a marine invertebrate community that was much less diverse and completely differed from the benthic communities found at present-day levels of pCO2. Seawater CO2 enrichment stimulated the growth and photosynthetic efficiency of benthic diatoms, but reduced the abundance of calcified grazers such as gastropods and sea urchins. These observations suggest that ocean acidification will shift photic zone community composition so that coastal food-web structure and ecosystem function are homogenised, simplified, and more strongly affected by seasonal algal blooms.

show abstract

“…Top‐down control by benthic invertebrates in acidified conditions may also diminish, given that at CO 2 seeps the abundance and size of many marine fauna are reduced (Garilli et al, 2015; Harvey et al, 2016, 2018), with such examples as the observed number of sea urchin feeding halos being reduced in a CO 2 seep (Kroeker et al, 2013). Fish communities include a greater proportion of herbivorous fish within acidified conditions (during the period of peak macroalgae biomass; Cattano et al, 2020), and so it may be possible in some systems for fish to maintain top‐down control (Baggini et al, 2015). Taken together, any strong reductions in bottom‐up and/or top‐down control are likely to alter community successional trajectories and allow r ‐selected opportunistic species to outcompete other species and dominate under ocean acidification.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Northern Pacific Ocean, this is further complicated by the occurrence of typhoons, which typically occur between July and October in Japan. Typhoons act as a substantial physical disturbance that affects benthic community structure and habitat complexity, such as through the removal of corals (Done, 1992), macroalgae (Cattano et al, 2020) and seagrass cover (Wilson et al, 2020), and can indirectly change the community function of associated species (e.g. fish; Cattano et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a species‐poor early successional stage

Harvey

Kon

Agostini

et al. 2021

Global Change Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Long‐term exposure to CO2‐enriched waters can considerably alter marine biological community development, often resulting in simplified systems dominated by turf algae that possess reduced biodiversity and low ecological complexity. Current understanding of the underlying processes by which ocean acidification alters biological community development and stability remains limited, making the management of such shifts problematic. Here, we deployed recruitment tiles in reference (pHT 8.137 ± 0.056 SD) and CO2‐enriched conditions (pHT 7.788 ± 0.105 SD) at a volcanic CO2 seep in Japan to assess the underlying processes and patterns of algal community development. We assessed (i) algal community succession in two different seasons (Cooler months: January–July, and warmer months: July–January), (ii) the effects of initial community composition on subsequent community succession (by reciprocally transplanting preestablished communities for a further 6 months), and (iii) the community production of resulting communities, to assess how their functioning was altered (following 12 months recruitment). Settlement tiles became dominated by turf algae under CO2‐enrichment and had lower biomass, diversity and complexity, a pattern consistent across seasons. This locked the community in a species‐poor early successional stage. In terms of community functioning, the elevated pCO2 community had greater net community production, but this did not result in increased algal community cover, biomass, biodiversity or structural complexity. Taken together, this shows that both new and established communities become simplified by rising CO2 levels. Our transplant of preestablished communities from enriched CO2 to reference conditions demonstrated their high resilience, since they became indistinguishable from communities maintained entirely in reference conditions. This shows that meaningful reductions in pCO2 can enable the recovery of algal communities. By understanding the ecological processes responsible for driving shifts in community composition, we can better assess how communities are likely to be altered by ocean acidification.

show abstract

Changes in fish communities due to benthic habitat shifts under ocean acidification conditions

Cited by 33 publications

References 80 publications

Greater Mitochondrial Energy Production Provides Resistance to Ocean Acidification in “Winning” Hermatypic Corals

Greater Mitochondrial Energy Production Provides Resistance to Ocean Acidification in “Winning” Hermatypic Corals

Diatoms Dominate and Alter Marine Food-Webs When CO2 Rises

Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a species‐poor early successional stage

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About