Project: Collaborative research: Understanding the effects of acidification and hypoxia within and across generations in a coastal marine fish

Acronym/Short Name:HYPOA
Project Duration:2015-12 - 2018-11
Geolocation:Eastern Long Island Sound, CT, USA

Description

Description from NSF award abstract:
Coastal marine ecosystems provide a number of important services and resources for humans, and at the same time, coastal waters are subject to environmental stressors such as increases in ocean acidification and reductions in dissolved oxygen. The effects of these stressors on coastal marine organisms remain poorly understood because most research to date has examined the sensitivity of species to one factor, but not to more than one in combination. This project will determine how a model fish species, the Atlantic silverside, will respond to observed and predicted levels of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2). Shorter-term experiments will measure embryo and larval survival, growth, and metabolism, and determine whether parents experiencing stressful conditions produce more robust offspring. Longer-term experiments will study the consequences of ocean acidification over the entire life span by quantifying the effects of high-CO2 conditions on the ratio of males to females, lifetime growth, and reproductive investment. These studies will provide a more comprehensive view of how multiple stressors may impact populations of Atlantic silversides and potentially other important forage fish species. This collaborative project will support and train three graduate students at the University of Connecticut and the Stony Brook University (NY), two institutions that attract students from minority groups. It will also provide a variety of opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research and the public to learn about the study, through summer research projects, incorporation in the "Women in Science and Engineering" program, and interactive displays of environmental data from monitoring buoys. The two early-career investigators are committed to increasing ocean literacy and awareness of NSF-funded research through public talks and presentations.

This project responds to the recognized need for multi-stressor assessments of species sensitivities to anthropogenic environmental change. It will combine environmental monitoring with advanced experimental approaches to characterize early and whole life consequences of acidification and hypoxia in the Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia), a valued model species and important forage fish along most of the US east coast. Experiments will employ a newly constructed, computer-controlled fish rearing system to allow independent and combined manipulation of seawater pCO2 and dissolved oxygen (DO) content and the application of static and fluctuating pCO2 and DO levels that were chosen to represent contemporary and potential future scenarios in productive coastal habitats. First CO2, DO, and CO2 × DO dependent reaction norms will be quantified for fitness-relevant early life history (ELH) traits including pre- and post-hatch survival, time to hatch, post-hatch growth, by rearing offspring collected from wild adults from fertilization to 20 days post hatch (dph) using a full factorial design of 3 CO2 × 3 DO levels. Second, the effects of tidal and diel CO2 × DO fluctuations of different amplitudes on silverside ELH traits will be quantified. To address knowledge gaps regarding the CO2-sensitivity in this species, laboratory manipulations of adult spawner environments and reciprocal offspring exposure experiments will elucidate the role of transgenerational plasticity as a potential short-term mechanism to cope with changing environments. To better understand the mechanisms of fish early life CO2-sensitivity, the effects of temperature × CO2 on pre- and post-hatch metabolism will be robustly quantified. The final objective is to rear silversides from fertilization to maturity under different CO2 levels and assess potential CO2-effects on sex ratio and whole life growth and fecundity.

Related references:
Gobler, C.J. and Baumann, H. (2016) Hypoxia and acidification in ocean ecosystems: Coupled dynamics and effects on marine life. Biology Letters 12:20150976. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0976

Baumann, H. (2016) Combined effects of ocean acidification, warming, and hypoxia on marine organisms. Limnology and Oceanography e-Lectures 6:1-43. doi:10.1002/loe2.10002

Depasquale, E., Baumann, H., and Gobler, C.J. (2015) Variation in early life stage vulnerability among Northwest Atlantic estuarine forage fish to ocean acidification and low oxygen Marine Ecology Progress Series 523: 145–156.doi:10.3354/meps11142


DatasetLatest Version DateCurrent State
Hatching success, survival and growth in northern stock black sea bass reared at contrasting pCO2 conditions in laboratory experiments conduced with embryos from adults collected in Long Island Sound in 20222024-09-16Final no updates expected
Morphometrics of black sea bass reared at contrasting pCO2 conditions in laboratory experiments conduced with embryos from adults collected in Long Island Sound in 20222024-09-16Final no updates expected
Temperature-dependence of juvenile Black sea bass growth and lipid accumulation determined through lab experiments conducted from September 2021 to February 2022 at UConn Avery Point2023-07-18Final no updates expected
Winter growth and lipid accumulation in juvenile Black sea bass exposed to varying food and temperature conditions during lab experiments conducted from September 2021 to April 2022 at UConn Avery Point2023-07-18Final no updates expected
Temperature, pH, DO, and salinity data from Mumford Cove, Connecticut, USA from 2015-20222023-06-23Final no updates expected
Data on hatching frequency and success from an experiment on CO2 sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) embryos conducted in 20202022-01-12Final no updates expected
Data on chorion thickness from embryos studied in an experiment on CO2 sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) embryos conducted in 20182022-01-11Final no updates expected
Data on unhatched embryos from an experiment on CO2 sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) embryos conducted in 20182022-01-10Final no updates expected
Morphometric data from experiments on CO2 sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) embryos conducted in 2018 and 20202022-01-04Final no updates expected
Hatch data from experiments on CO2 sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) embryos conducted in 2018 and 20202022-01-03Final no updates expected
Data from the spawning trial in a study of CO2 and temperature-specific reproductive traits in Menidia menidia2021-04-23Final no updates expected
Egg measurements from the fecundity trial in a study of CO2 and temperature-specific reproductive traits in Menidia menidia2021-03-18Final no updates expected
Data on egg production resulting from the spawning trial in a study of CO2 and temperature-specific reproductive traits in Menidia menidia2021-03-18Final no updates expected
Data from the fecundity trial in a study of CO2 and temperature-specific reproductive traits in Menidia menidia2021-03-18Final no updates expected
CO2, temperature, and oxygen effects on Atlantic silverside metabolic rates2020-11-10Final no updates expected
Otolith microstructure of young-of-year Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) from Mumford Cove during 20152019-11-20Final no updates expected
Growth data from static and fluctuating pCO2 x dissolved oxygen (DO) experiments on Menidia menidia2019-09-20Final no updates expected
Carbonate chemistry data from static and fluctuating pCO2 x dissolved oxygen (DO) experiments on Menidia menidia2019-09-20Final no updates expected
Survival data from static and fluctuating pCO2 x dissolved oxygen (DO) experiments on Menidia menidia2019-09-20Final no updates expected
CO2 × temperature specific early life survival and growth of Menidia menidia assessed by 5 factorial experiments2018-04-05Final no updates expected
Survival, length, and growth responses of M. menidia offspring from different females exposed to contrasting CO2 environments.2017-11-14Final no updates expected
Fatty acid profiles of M. menidia females and their unfertilized eggs.2017-11-14Final no updates expected
Laboratory study of long-term growth in juvenile Menidia menidia (Atlantic silverside) at contrasting CO2 levels for 16 to 122 days in 20152016-07-07Final no updates expected

People

Principal Investigator: Hannes Baumann
University of Connecticut (UConn)

Principal Investigator: Janet Nye
Stony Brook University - SoMAS (SUNY-SB SoMAS)

Contact: Hannes Baumann
University of Connecticut (UConn)


Data Management Plan

Data Management Plan received by BCO-DMO on 28 June 2016. (6.40 KB)
06/28/2016