Supplementary material from "CO 2 -induced ocean acidification does not affect individual or group behaviour in a temperate damselfish"

• Main Authors: Kwan, Garfield Tsz, Hamilton, Trevor James, Tresguerres, Martin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Figshare 2017
• Subjects: Physiology; FOS Biological sciences; Environmental Science; 60801 Animal Behaviour; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3808141.v2; https://figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_CO_sub_2_sub_-induced_ocean_acidification_does_not_affect_individual_or_group_behaviour_in_a_temperate_damselfish_/3808141/2

Open ocean surface CO 2 levels are projected to reach approximately 800 μatm, and ocean pH to decrease by approximately 0.3 units by the year 2100 due to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions and the subsequent process of ocean acidification (OA). When exposed to these CO 2 /pH values, several fish species display abnormal behaviour in laboratory tests, an effect proposed to be linked to altered neuronal GABA A­ receptor function. Juvenile blacksmith ( Chromis punctipinnis ) are social fish that regularly experience CO 2 /pH fluctuations through kelp forest diurnal primary production and upwelling events, so we hypothesized that they might be resilient to OA. Blacksmiths were exposed to control conditions (pH ∼ 7.92; p CO 2 ∼ 540 μatm), constant acidification (pH ∼ 7.71; p CO 2 ∼ 921 μatm) and oscillating acidification (pH ∼ 7.91, p CO 2 ∼ 560 μatm (day), pH ∼ 7.70, p CO 2 ∼ 955 μatm (night)), and caught and tested in two seasons of the year when the ocean temperature was different: winter (16.5 ± 0.1°C) and summer (23.1 ± 0.1°C). Neither constant nor oscillating CO 2 -induced acidification affected blacksmith individual light/dark preference, inter-individual distance in a shoal or the shoal's response to a novel object, suggesting that blacksmiths are tolerant to projected future OA conditions. However, blacksmiths tested during the winter demonstrated significantly higher dark preference in the individual light/dark preference test, thus confirming season and/or water temperature as relevant factors to consider in behavioural tests.