Otoliths of marine fishes record evidence of low oxygen, temperature and pH conditions of deep Oxygen Minimum Zones

Cavole, Letícia Maria; Limburg, Karin E.; Gallo, Natalya D.; Salvanes, Anne Gro Vea; Ramírez-Valdez, Arturo; Levin, Lisa A.; Oropeza, Octavio Aburto; Hertwig, A. T.; Liu, Ming‐Chang; McKeegan, Kevin D.

doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2022.103941

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 101 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Cavole (2021) performed the first studies of otolith B : Ca as a po-tential proxy for ocean acidification, using wild fishes across a natural pH gradient (7.4 to 8.1). Cavole et al (2023), examining potential tracers of warming, hypoxia, and acidification in deep-sea fishes, found wide variation in B : Ca but no consistent trends.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marked recent declines in boron in Baltic Sea cod otoliths – a bellwether of incipient acidification in a vast hypoxic system?

Limburg,

Heimbrand,

Kuliński

2023

Biogeosciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Ocean acidification is spreading globally as a result of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but the Baltic Sea has until recently been thought to be relatively well-buffered by terrigenous inputs of alkalinity from its watershed. We discovered a 3- to 5-fold decline in boron (as B : Ca) in otoliths of eastern Baltic cod (EBC) between the late 1990s and 2021. Examining a time series of EBC otoliths, we found varying levels of B : Ca starting in the 1980s, with the most recent years showing an all-time low for this period. This trend correlates with declines in pH and dissolved oxygen but not with changes in salinity. We examined possible physiological influences on B : Ca by including a collection of Icelandic cod as an “out-group”. Icelandic cod otoliths showed strongly positive correlations of B : Ca with physiologically regulated P : Ca; this was not the case for EBC. Finally, B : Ca in EBC otoliths is negatively correlated, to some extent, with Mn : Mg, a proposed proxy for hypoxia exposure. This negative relationship is hypothesized to reflect the dual phenomena of hypoxia and acidification as a result of decomposition of large algal blooms. Taken together, the otolith biomarkers Mn : Mg and B : Ca in cod suggest a general increase in both hypoxia and acidification within the Baltic intermediate and deep waters in the last decade.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marked recent declines in boron in Baltic Sea cod otoliths – a bellwether of incipient acidification in a vast hypoxic system?

Limburg,

Heimbrand,

Kuliński

2023

Biogeosciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These chemical ratios in otoliths were used to infer not only exposure to hypoxia of cod to low oxygen waters in the Baltic but also physiological stress as indicated by reduced metabolic activity as suggested by lower Mg:Ca (Limburg and Casini, 2019), but see Valenza et al, (2023) for an opposite response in Gulf of Mexico. Recent analysis of six fish species from 3 open ocean OMZs (Namibia, Southern California and Baja California) revealed a common elemental fingerprint attributed to hypoxia exposure, based on Sr:Ca, Mn:Ca, Ba:Ca, Cu:Ca and Mg:Ca and distinct from giant sea bass collected in well-oxygenated shallow waters (Cavole et al, 2023). Few tests of invertebrate structures exist, however Navarro et al (2014) documented elevated U:Ca in squid statoliths experimentally subjected to low-oxygen alone and low-oxygen / low pH compared to normoxic conditions.…”

Section: Individual Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviews and syntheses: Biological Indicators of Oxygen Stress in Water Breathing Animals

Roman,

Altieri,

Breitburg

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Anthropogenic warming and nutrient over-enrichment of our oceans have resulted in significant, and often catastrophic, reductions in dissolved oxygen (deoxygenation). Stress on water-breathing animals from this deoxygenation has been shown to occur at all levels of biological organization: cellular; organ; individual; species; population; community; and ecosystem. Most climate forecasts predict increases in ocean deoxygenation, thus it is essential to develop reliable biological indicators of oxygen stress that can be used by regional and global oxygen monitoring efforts to detect and assess the impacts of deoxygenation on ocean life. This review focuses on indicators of low-oxygen stress that are manifest at different levels of biological organization and at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. We compare particular attributes of these indicators to the dissolved oxygen threshold of response, time-scales of response, sensitive life stages and taxa, and the ability to scale the response to oxygen stress across levels of organization. Where there is available evidence, we discuss the interactions of other biological and abiotic stressors on the biological indicators of oxygen stress. We address the utility, confounding effects, and implementation of the biological indicators of oxygen stress for both research and societal applications. Our hope is that further refinement and dissemination of these oxygen stress indicators will provide more direct support for environmental managers, fisheries and mariculture scientists, conservation professionals, and policy makers to confront the challenges of ocean deoxygenation. An improved understanding of the sensitivity of different ocean species, communities and ecosystems to low oxygen stress will empower efforts to design monitoring programs, assess ecosystem health, develop management guidelines, track conditions, and detect low-oxygen events.

show abstract

“…Thus, Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios of G. hexagonus shells from sediments show particular promise for reconstructing past OMZs. It is our hope that these conventional trace elements in planktic foraminifera, along with other archives of pelagic calcite such as fish otoliths (Limburg et al, 2015;Limburg and Casini, 2018;Altenritter and Walther, 2019;Cavole et al, 2023) may be used to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of records from low oxygen pelagic environments.…”

Section: Diagenesis As a Potential Complicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trace element composition of modern planktic foraminifera from an oxygen minimum zone: Potential proxies for an enigmatic environment

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Oxygen limited marine environments, such as oxygen minimum zones, are of profound importance for global nutrient cycling and vertical habitat availability. While it is understood that the extent and intensity of oxygen minimum zones are responsive to climate, the limited suite of viable proxies for low oxygen pelagic environments continues to pose a real barrier for paleoclimate interpretations. Here we investigate the proxy potential of an array of trace element (Mg, Mn, Zn, and Sr) to Ca ratios from the shells of Globorotaloides hexagonus, a planktic foraminifer endemic to tropical through temperate oxygen minimum zones. A species-specific relationship between Mg/Ca and temperature is proposed for quantitative reconstruction of oxygen minimum zone paleotemperatures. Both Mn/Ca and Zn/Ca ratios vary with oxygen concentration and could be useful for reconstructing G. hexagonus habitat where the primary signal can be d\istinguished from diagenetic overprinting. Finally, a robust correlation between Sr/Ca ratios and dissolved oxygen demonstrates a role for Sr as an indicator of oxygen minimum zone intensity, potentially via foraminiferal growth rate. The analysis of these relatively conventional trace element ratios in the shells of an oxygen minimum zone species has tremendous potential to facilitate multiproxy reconstructions from this enigmatic environment.

show abstract

Otoliths of marine fishes record evidence of low oxygen, temperature and pH conditions of deep Oxygen Minimum Zones

Cited by 7 publications

References 101 publications

Marked recent declines in boron in Baltic Sea cod otoliths – a bellwether of incipient acidification in a vast hypoxic system?

Marked recent declines in boron in Baltic Sea cod otoliths – a bellwether of incipient acidification in a vast hypoxic system?

Reviews and syntheses: Biological Indicators of Oxygen Stress in Water Breathing Animals

Trace element composition of modern planktic foraminifera from an oxygen minimum zone: Potential proxies for an enigmatic environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About