MEPS 687:147-162 (2022)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14010

ABSTRACT: Rising oceanic partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) could affect many traits in fish early life stages, but only few species to date have shown direct CO₂-induced survival reductions. This might partly be because species from less CO₂-variable, offshore environments in higher latitudes are currently underrepresented in the literature. We conducted new experimental work on northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius, a key forage fish on offshore Northwest Atlantic sand banks, which was recently suggested to be highly CO₂-sensitive. In 2 complementary trials, we produced embryos from wild, Gulf of Maine spawners and reared them at several pCO₂ levels (~400-2000 µatm) in combination with static (6, 7, 10°C) and dynamic (10→5°C) temperature treatments. Again, we consistently observed large, CO₂-induced reductions in hatching success (-23% at 1000 µatm, -61% at ~2000 µatm), and the effects were temperature-independent. To distinguish pCO₂ effects during development from potential impacts on hatching itself, some embryos were switched between high and control pCO₂ treatments just prior to hatch. This indeed altered hatching patterns, consistent with the CO₂-impaired hatching hypothesis. High CO₂ also delayed the day of first hatch in one trial and peak hatch in the other, where later-hatched larvae were of similar size but with progressively less endogenous energy reserves. For context, we extracted seasonal pCO₂ projections for Stellwagen Bank (Gulf of Maine) from regional ensemble simulations, which indicated a CO₂-induced reduction in sand lance hatching success to 71% of contemporary levels by 2100. The species’ unusual CO₂ sensitivity has large ecological and scientific ramifications that warrant future in-depth research.

KEY WORDS: Ocean acidification · CO₂-impaired hatching · Dynamic temperature · Endogenous energy reserves · Regional pCO₂ projections

Full text in pdf format Supplementary material

Cite this article as: Baumann H, Jones LF, Murray CS, Siedlecki SA, Alexander M, Cross EL (2022) Impaired hatching exacerbates the high CO2 sensitivity of embryonic sand lance Ammodytes dubius. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 687:147-162. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14010 Export citation Share:    Facebook - - linkedIn