Yan, Huajing (2016) Effects of High CO2 on Immune Response and Scale Structures in Juvenile Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). (Master thesis), Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany, 61 pp.

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Abstract

Ocean acidification (OA), a consequence of the dissolution of excess anthropogenic carbon dioxide in ocean water, is ongoing worldwide. Possible effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms include impacts on growth and development, survival, reproduction, acid-base regulation, behavior, and biomineralizing species calcification rates. The health and well-being of organisms depends on their immune system, therefore one part of this thesis was to study the effect of ocean acidification on the immunity. Another part is in regards to the effect of ocean acidification on biomineralization; in this thesis is fish with biomineralizing scales, which could also influence the health of an organism. Early life stages are highly vulnerable; therefore this thesis studied juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) response to the effects of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on the innate immune system and scale structures. Turbots were exposed to three different levels of CO2 (ambient, 1000 μatm and 2000 μatm) in both short term (1 week) and long term (16 weeks) exposure. In the short term experiment, a stress response in the highest CO2 treatment was observed, evident from an increase in lysozyme activity which led to a downregulation of an antimicrobial peptide (hepcidin1). No CO2 effect was found in the long term experiment on both the immune response and scale structure, suggesting the ability of turbots to acclimate to future predicted oceanic CO2 levels. However changes in gene expression and lysozyme activity in the long term experiment suggested a stress effect from seasonal temperature variations.

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