Featured Science Paper
No ocean acidification effects on shell growth and repair in the New Zealand brachiopod Calloria inconspicua (Sowerby, 1846)
The world’s oceans are becoming more acidic because they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and atmospheric CO2 levels have increased since the Industrial Revolution. This acidification potentially has catastrophic effects for marine organisms that build shells or a skeleton as it reduces the availability of shell-building ions. Brachiopods are one of the best groups of animals to investigate the effects of ocean acidification due to their large shell. They are found in all the world’s oceans and are important ecologically as they provide a habitat for a broad range of other animals. However, little is known about the effects of ocean acidity on this group of marine organisms with only one previous study (Cross, Peck and Harper, 2015) investigating the impacts of ocean acidification on this group, and that was on Antarctic brachiopods.
Two essential processes for the survival of animals that build shells are shell growth and repair. Brachiopods become damaged in their natural environment due to impacts from a variety of causes and from predator attack. Growth is also an indicator of an animal’s well being in its environment. Therefore, this recent publication investigated how shell growth rates and the ability to shell repair following damage in New Zealand brachiopods were affected by predicted future ocean acidification conditions. We found that both the ability to shell repair and growth rates in individuals >3mm in length were not affected by ocean acidification. Individuals <3mm in length, however, grew faster in more acidic conditions. This suggests that just like the Antarctic brachiopod, a temperate New Zealand brachiopod can cope with future environmental conditions.
Link to the full paper in the NERC Open Research Archive
Authors
Cross, E. L., L. S. Peck, M. D. Lamare and E. M. Harper (2015)
Publication
ICES J. Mar. Sci., doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsv031
