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Upper environmental pCO2 drives sensitivity to ocean acidification in marine invertebrates

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 200–207 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Minimizing the impact of ocean acidification requires an understanding of species responses and environmental variability of population habitats. Whereas the literature is growing rapidly, emerging results suggest unresolved species- or population-specific responses. Here we present a meta-analysis synthesizing experimental studies examining the effects of pCO2 on biological traits in marine invertebrates. At the sampling locations of experimental animals, we determined environmental pCO2 conditions by integrating data from global databases and pCO2 measurements from buoys. Experimental pCO2 scenarios were compared with upper pCO2 using an index considering the upper environmental pCO2. For most taxa, a statistically significant negative linear relationship was observed between this index and mean biological responses, indicating that the impact of a given experimental pCO2 scenario depends on the deviation from the upper pCO2 level experienced by local populations. Our results highlight the importance of local biological adaptation and the need to consider present pCO2 natural variability while interpreting experimental results.

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Fig. 1: Examples of pCO2 natural variability in the coastal ocean driven by different local and long-term processes.
Fig. 2: Surface pCO2 distribution at coastal regions.
Fig. 3: Mean response of different species grouped on eight marine taxa in relation to the ∆pCO2 exposure index.

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Data Availability

Data used in this paper is available online as Supplementary Dataset 1 and 2.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by FONDECYT project number 1210171 to C.A.V. and 1181300 to B.R.B. Additional support from the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID)–Millennium Science Initiative Program–Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IMO) ICN12_019, the Coastal Socio-Ecological Millennium Institute (SECOS) ICN2019_015 and the Millennium Science Initiative Nucleus–Understanding Past coastal upWelling systems and Environmental Local and Lasting impacts (UPWELL) NCN19-153 is also acknowledged. S.D. is funded by the Swedish Research Councils Formas. We greatly thank F. Gamonal from IMO for the design of Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coastal Ecosystems & Global Environmental Change Lab (ECCALab), Department of Aquatic System, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, & EULA Environmental Sciences Center, Universidad de Concepción, Concepcion, Chile

    Cristian A. Vargas & L. Antonio Cuevas

  2. Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IMO), Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Cristian A. Vargas

  3. Coastal Socio-Ecological Millennium Institute (SECOS), Universidad de Concepción & P. Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Cristian A. Vargas, L. Antonio Cuevas, Bernardo R. Broitman, Valeska A. San Martin & Nelson A. Lagos

  4. Faculty of Liberal Arts, Department of Sciences, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar, Chile

    Bernardo R. Broitman

  5. Centro de Investigación e Innovación para el Cambio Climático (CiiCC), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Santo Tomás, Santiago, Chile

    Nelson A. Lagos

  6. The Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia

  7. Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Fiskebäckskil, Sweden

    Sam Dupont

  8. International Atomic Energy Agency, Principality of Monaco, Monaco

    Sam Dupont

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  1. Cristian A. Vargas
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Contributions

All authors provided input into data availability and preliminary discussions. C.A.V., B.R.B. and L.A.C. carried out data analysis, and C.A.V. designed the main structure of the study. C.A.V. led the drafting of the text with contributions from S.D., B.R.B., L.A.C., J.D.G.-E., N.A.L. and V.A.S.M.

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Correspondence to Cristian A. Vargas.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–5 and Table 1.

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41558_2021_1269_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary Dataset 1: pCO2 values extracted from the LDEO database version 2019 used in this study and separated by coastal regions. Date of sampling and coordinates of each position have been included.

41558_2021_1269_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary Dataset 2: List of all taxa, life stage CO2 values used for the different biological traits considered in our study.

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Vargas, C.A., Cuevas, L.A., Broitman, B.R. et al. Upper environmental pCO2 drives sensitivity to ocean acidification in marine invertebrates. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 200–207 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01269-2

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