The effects of multiple abiotic stressors on marine embryos and larvae  

Authors / CoAuthors

Przeslawski, R. | Byrne, M. | Mellin, C.

Abstract

Marine organisms are exposed not only to natural environmental stressors, but also the additional effects of anthropogenic stressors, notably increasing temperatures and reduced pH. Early life stages of marine organisms have been recognised as potentially vulnerable to the stressors associated with climate change and ocean acidification, but identifying patterns across studies, species and a range of response variables is challenging. This study is supported by the Marine Biodiversity Hub through the National Environmental Research Program and identifies knowledge gaps in research on multiple abiotic stressors and early life stage (embryo to larvae), while quantifying interactions based on life history. Temperature was the most common stressor (91% of studies), while the most common combination of stressors was temperature and salinity (66%), followed by temperature and pH (17.5%). All studies were conducted in the laboratory although four studies also undertook field experiments. Synergistic interactions (68% of individual tests) were more common than additive (16%) or antagonistic (16%) interactions. The meta-analysis yielded several key results: 1) Embryos are not more vulnerable to stress than larvae in combined stressor treatments. 2) Sub-lethal responses are not more likely to be affected by stress than lethal responses. 3) Interaction types vary among stressors, phyla, ontogenetic stages, and biological responses. 4) Elevated temperature is generally a greater stressor than ocean acidification, but this depends on ontogenetic stage and phylum. 5) Ocean acidification is a greater stressor for calcifying than non-calcifying larvae. Our findings will assist in monitoring and predicting the health of marine populations and communities by identifying sensitive and robust taxa.

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nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

79205

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• External PublicationAbstract

( Theme )

• marine environmental baselines

( Theme )

• marine biodiversity

( Theme )

• marine

( Theme )

• NERP

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

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2014-03-13T00:00:00

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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geoscientificInformation

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