Increased fitness of a key appendicularian zooplankton species under warmer, acidified seawater conditions.

Bouquet, Jean-Marie, Troedsson, Christofer, Novac, Aliona, Reeve, Magnus, Lechtenbörger, Anna K., Massart, Wendy, Skaar, Katrine S., Aasjord, Anne, Dupont, Sam and Thompson, Eric M. (2018) Increased fitness of a key appendicularian zooplankton species under warmer, acidified seawater conditions. Open Access PLoS ONE, 13 (1). e0190625. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0190625.

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Abstract

Ocean warming and acidification (OA) may alter the fitness of species in marine pelagic ecosystems through community effects or direct physiological impacts. We used the zooplanktonic appendicularian, Oikopleura dioica, to assess temperature and pH effects at mesocosm and microcosm scales. In mesocosms, both OA and warming positively impacted O. dioica abundance over successive generations. In microcosms, the positive impact of OA, was observed to result from increased fecundity. In contrast, increased pH, observed for example during phytoplankton blooms, reduced fecundity. Oocyte fertility and juvenile development were equivalent under all pH conditions, indicating that the positive effect of lower pH on O. dioica abundance was principally due to increased egg number. This effect was influenced by food quantity and quality, supporting possible improved digestion and assimilation at lowered pH. Higher temperature resulted in more rapid growth, faster maturation and earlier reproduction. Thus, increased temperature and reduced pH had significant positive impacts on O. dioica fitness through increased fecundity and shortened generation time, suggesting that predicted future ocean conditions may favour this zooplankton species. © 2018 Bouquet et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Document Type: Article
Keywords: Diet; Mesocosms; Fecundity; Body temperature; Marine ecosystems; Food web structure; Ocean temperature; Marine ecology;
Research affiliation: OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB2 Marine Biogeochemistry > FB2-BI Biological Oceanography
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: Yes
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Date Deposited: 15 Jan 2018 09:08
Last Modified: 08 Feb 2021 07:28
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/41444

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