Ocean acidification does not impair predator recognition but increases juvenile growth in a temperate wrasse off CO2 seeps

• Published in: Marine Environmental Research
• Main Authors: Cattano, Carlo, Calò, Antonio, Di Franco, Antonio, Firmamento, Roberto, Quattrocchi, Federico, Sdiri, Khalil, Guidetti, P., Milazzo, Marco
• Other Authors: Università degli Studi di Palermo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2017
• Subjects: Global change; CO2 vents; Carbon dioxide; Settlement; pH; Symphodus ocellatus; Effects-fish; Risk assessment; Palermo; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/158795; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2017.10.013; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004913

8 pages, 4 figures, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2017.10.013 Fish behavioural effects under Ocean Acidification (OA) rely on changes expected to occur in brain function, which can be reversed by gabazine, a GABA-A antagonist. Here, using standard two-channel choice flume, we assessed OA effects on the predator recognition ability of both gabazine-treated and -untreated Symphodus ocellatus post-settlers living off CO2 seeps in the Mediterranean Sea. To estimate the post-settlers background predation risk we evaluated the density of their predator in the wild and through otolith aging techniques we assessed their post-settlement growth. Results showed that: 1) post-settlers predator recognition was unaffected under OA; 2) post-settlers living in elevated CO2 were on average 15% bigger in size than those from ambient conditions. Our results support fish behavioural tolerance to OA, potentially mediated by pre-exposure to high-risk predation levels, and speculate that by increasing body size, juvenile fish might more efficiently avoid their predators This research was supported by FFR-A (R2FFRAD14+PNFG) funds from University of Palermo to M.M and a PhD grant to C.C. Peer Reviewed