Effects of elevated CO2 on fish behaviour undiminished by transgenerational acclimation

• Main Authors: Welch, Megan J, Watson, Sue-Ann, Welsh, Justin Q, McCormick, Mark I, Munday, Philip L
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2014
• Subjects: Acanthochromis polyacanthus; Alkalinity; total; standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Behaviour; Bicarbonate ion; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Chordata; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria (20-1000 L or < 1 m**2); EXP; Experiment; Figure; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Laboratory experiment; Lateralization; standard error; Nekton; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Orpheus_Island; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Pelagos; pH; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Replicates; Salinity; Single species; South Pacific; Species; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.843970; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.843970

Behaviour and sensory performance of marine fishes are impaired at CO2 levels projected to occur in the ocean in the next 50-100 years, and there is limited potential for within-generation acclimation to elevated CO2. However, whether fish behaviour can acclimate or adapt to elevated CO2 over multiple generations remains unanswered. We tested for transgenerational acclimation of reef fish olfactory preferences and behavioural lateralization at moderate (656 µatm) and high (912 µatm) end-of-century CO2 projections. Juvenile spiny damselfish, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, from control parents (446 µatm) exhibited an innate avoidance to chemical alarm cue (CAC) when reared in control conditions. In contrast, juveniles lost their innate avoidance of CAC and even became strongly attracted to CAC when reared at elevated CO2 levels. Juveniles from parents maintained at mid-CO2 and high-CO2 levels also lost their innate avoidance of CAC when reared in elevated CO2, demonstrating no capacity for transgenerational acclimation of olfactory responses. Behavioural lateralization was also disrupted for juveniles reared under elevated CO2, regardless of parental conditioning. Our results show minimal potential for transgenerational acclimation in this fish, suggesting that genetic adaptation will be necessary to overcome the effects of ocean acidification on behaviour.