Tolerance of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite amphitrite to salinity and temperature stress:effects of previous experience

Abstract

We conducted 4 experiments to study the effects of salinity and temperature on the barnacle Balanus amphtrite amphitrite Darwin, with particular focus on the effects of stress experienced in one life-stage on the performance of the next Life-stage. At 1S0C, typical winter water temperature in Hong Kong, larvae exlubited low survivorship, adults molted infrequently, and only a low percentage of in&viduals had developing ovaries and embryos However, at 30°C, typical summertime temperature in Hong Kong, larvae developed rapidly, survivorshp was h g h , adults molted frequently, and a high percentage of individuals had developing ovanes and embryos. These results suggest that low winter temperature may be a limiting factor responsible for cessation of recruitment, whereas high summer temperature is unlikely to be the cause for the dechne in recruitment. Salinity produced significant detrimental effects on both survival and development at 510%. In the 15 to 35% S range, however, none of the stages tested exhibited signs of stress. Salinity is a limiting factor for the survival and development of B. a. amphrh.te in Hong Kong only during mid-summer when salinity in the surface water can drop to below look. Exposing embryos to different salinities produced differential effects on larvae. For larvae cultured at 10% S, both survivorship and time of development were independent of the sahnity that the embryos had experienced; for larvae cultured at 15 and 35%0 S, exposing embryos to 10% S led to lower larval survivorship and longer larval development times. Exposing cypris larvae to 10% S did not alter juvenile growth but did result in lower survivorship. Osmotic stress experienced in one life-stage can be passed over to the next life-stage. In bioassays involving the use of B. a.amphitrite, results of the tested life-stage may be affected by stress experienced in a previous lifestage.

Being young in a changing world: how temperature and salinity changes interactively modify the performance of larval stages of the barnacle Amphibalanus improvisus

“…Similar results have previously been observed for Amphibalanus amphitrite (Anil et al 1995(Anil et al , 2001Qiu and Qian 1999), B. trigonus (Thiyagarajan et al 2003a, b), A. eburneus (Scheltema and Williams 1982), Elminius modestus (Harms 1984(Harms , 1986, and Semibalanus balanoides (Harms 1984). Independently of salinity, larval duration was accelerated by 1.2 days per °C of warming (R 2 = 0.75 and 0.96 for 15 and 5 psu, resp.).…”

“…The diVerent salinities used in the experiment were obtained by diluting Wltered (0.2 m) artiWcial seawater (30 psu) with double distilled water. Although diluting seawater with distilled water may create unnaturally low alkalinities at low salinity values, this is a common method used in salinity assays on barnacle larvae (e.g., Qiu and Qian 1999;Thiyagarajan et al 2003a;Tindle et al 2004). Personal measurement in our study, however, showed that alkalinity decreased with diluting seawater in a natural range as measured by Beldowski et al (2010) for the Baltic Sea at diVerent salinity values.…”

“…The interactive eVect of putative stresses such as high temperature and low salinity on larval performance and survival of barnacles has, however, been subject of only a few studies (Harms 1986;Anil et al 1995;Qiu and Qian 1999;Thiyagarajan et al 2003b). Responses toward multiple stressors of A. improvisus, the dominant barnacle species within the Western Baltic Sea, have not been investigated so far, neither in adult nor in larval stages.…”

“…Although the rearing conditions may inXuence the performance of subsequent stages such as cyprids or postlarvae (Pechenik et al 1993;Qiu and Qian 1999;Pechenik 2006;McDonald et al 2009), earlier studies have mainly examined the settlement success of cyprids without a stress history (e.g., Dineen and Hines 1992;Thiyagarajan et al 2003a;Dahlstrom et al 2004;McDonald et al 2009). In this study, we focus on three understudied aspects of stress ecology: the interaction of stressors, their impact on early life stages, and the inXuence of stress history on subsequent life stages.…”

“…This development is determined by various environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, and availability of food (Anil et al 1995(Anil et al , 2001Anil and Kurian 1996;Desai et al 2006). Consequently, the stress acting during early larval development might impact the performance and stress sensitivity of later stages, another aspect relatively neglected so far (but see Qiu and Qian 1999).…”