Physiological advantages of dwarfing in surviving extinctions in high-CO2 oceans

• Main Authors: Garilli, Vittorio, Rodolfo-Metalpa, Riccardo, Scuderi, Danilo, Brusca, Lorenzo, Parrinello, Daniela, Rastrick, S P S, Foggo, A, Twitchett, Richard J, Hall-Spencer, Jason M, Milazzo, Marco
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2015
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L); Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; 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; CO2 vent; Coast and continental shelf; Cyclope neritea; EXP; Experiment; Field observation; Figure; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Height; Height/width ratio; Identification; Laboratory experiment; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; Mediterranean Sea; Mollusca; Month; Nassarius corniculus; OA-ICC; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.847397; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.847397

Excessive CO2 in the present-day ocean-atmosphere system is causing ocean acidification, and is likely to cause a severe biodiversity decline in the future, mirroring effects in many past mass extinctions. Fossil records demonstrate that organisms surviving such events were often smaller than those before, a phenomenon called the Lilliput effect. Here, we show that two gastropod species adapted to acidified seawater at shallow-water CO2 seeps were smaller than those found in normal pH conditions and had higher mass-specific energy consumption but significantly lower whole-animal metabolic energy demand. These physiological changes allowed the animals to maintain calcification and to partially repair shell dissolution. These observations of the long-term chronic effects of increased CO2 levels forewarn of changes we can expect in marine ecosystems as CO2 emissions continue to rise unchecked, and support the hypothesis that ocean acidification contributed to past extinction events. The ability to adapt through dwarfing can confer physiological advantages as the rate of CO2 emissions continues to increase.