Near-future carbon dioxide levels impair the olfactory system of a marine fish ...

• Main Authors: Porteus, Cosima S, Hubbard, Peter C, Uren Webster, Tamsyn M, van Aerle, Ronny, Canário, Adelino V M, Santos, Eduarda, Wilson, R W
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2018
• Subjects: Animalia; Behaviour; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Chordata; Coast and continental shelf; Dicentrarchus labrax; Laboratory experiment; Nekton; North Atlantic; Other studied parameter or process; Pelagos; Single species; Temperate; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.884674; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.884674

Survival of marine fishes exposed to elevated near-future CO2 levels is threatened by their altered responses to sensory cues. Here we demonstrate a novel physiological and molecular mechanism based in the olfactory system which helps explain altered behavior under elevated CO2. We combine electrophysiology and high throughput sequencing with behavioral experiments to investigate how elevated CO2 affects the olfactory system of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), an economically important species. Under elevated CO2 (~1000 µatm) fish need to be up to 42% closer to an odor source for detection, compared with current CO2 levels (~400 µatm), decreasing their chances of detecting food or predators. These findings correlated with a suppression in the transcription of genes involved in synaptic strength, cell excitability, and wiring of the olfactory system in response to sustained exposure to elevated CO2. Our results contrast with, but complement, the previously proposed mechanism of impaired ... : Supplement to: Porteus, Cosima S; Hubbard, Peter C; Uren Webster, Tamsyn M; van Aerle, Ronny; Canário, Adelino V M; Santos, Eduarda; Wilson, Rod W (2018): Near-future CO2 levels impair the olfactory system of a marine fish. Nature Climate Change, 8(8), 737-743 ...