Experiment on the response of the sea star Asterias rubens to heat stress and ocean acidification: gonad and pyloric caeca mass and indices

DOI

Robust estimates of marine species vulnerability to ongoing climate change require realistic stressor experiments. Here, we subjected an important coastal predator, the sea star Asterias rubens, to projected warming and ocean acidification over an annual seasonal cycle. Warming and, less so, acidification, had strongly season-specific impacts on animal energy budgets. Specifically, simulated future summer temperatures caused >95% sea star mortality, reduced feeding rate and body mass loss. Additional acute experiments demonstrated that respiratory oxygen flux was preferentially directed to support high summer metabolism at the expense of feeding-related processes. Using 15 years of field temperature data and end of century warming projections, we estimate that potentially lethal summer heat waves will occur in 20% of future years. Our study demonstrates the importance of assessing stress responses along seasonal thermal cycles and the high selective force that future summer heat waves likely can exert on coastal marine animal populations.

Figure 4a

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.949418
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.949426
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.949418
Provenance
Creator Melzner, Frank ORCID logo; Findeisen, Ulrike; Bock, Christian ORCID logo; Panknin, Ulrike; Kiko, Rainer ORCID logo; Hiebenthal, Claas ORCID logo; Lenz, Mark; Wall, Marlene ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2022
Funding Reference German Research Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659 Crossref Funder ID 27542298 https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/27542298 Climate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean; German Research Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659 Crossref Funder ID EXC 80 https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/24122362 The Future Ocean; Seventh Framework Programme https://doi.org/10.13039/100011102 Crossref Funder ID 265847 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/265847 Sub-seabed CO2 Storage: Impact on Marine Ecosystems
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 704 data points
Discipline Biogeochemistry; Biospheric Sciences; Geosciences; Natural Sciences
Temporal Coverage Begin 2018-04-16T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2018-08-29T00:00:00Z