Seawater carbonate chemistry and biological processes during experiments with oyster Crassostrea gigas, 2009

• Main Authors: Havenhand, Jonathan N, Schlegel, Peter
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2009
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L); Calcite saturation state; Calculated; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Coast and continental shelf; Crassostrea gigas; Date; EPOCA; EUR-OCEANS; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis; European Project on Ocean Acidification; Experimental treatment; Fertilization success rate; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Identification; Laboratory experiment; Microscopy; Mollusca; Motile sperm; Crassostera gigas; speed; swimming > 15 µm/s; North Atlantic; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH meter; Reproduction; Salinity; standard deviation; Single species; Sperm concentration; Ocean acidification; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.752267; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.752267

An increasing number of studies are now reporting the effects of ocean acidification on a broad range of marine species, processes and systems. Many of these are investigating the sensitive early life-history stages that several major reviews have highlighted as being potentially most susceptible to ocean acidification. Nonetheless there remain few investigations of the effects of ocean acidification on the very earliest, and critical, process of fertilization, and still fewer that have investigated levels of ocean acidification relevant for the coming century. Here we report the effects of near-future levels of ocean acidification (~0.35 pH unit change) on sperm swimming speed, sperm motility, and fertilization kinetics in a population of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas from western Sweden. We found no significant effect of ocean acidification - a result that was well-supported by power analysis. Similar findings from Japan suggest that this may be a globally robust result, and we emphasise the need for experiments on multiple populations from throughout a species' range. We also discuss the importance of sound experimental design and power analysis in meaningful interpretation of non-significant results.