Surf Smelt Embryo and Larvae Data

• Main Author: Russell, Megan
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: SEANOE 2018
• Subjects: Surf Smelt; Fish; Energetics; Climate Change; Hypomesus pretiosus; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17882/85830; https://www.seanoe.org/data/00746/85830/

Data found here were used for the following research: Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) are ecologically critical forage fish in the North Pacific ecosystem. As obligate beach spawners, surf smelt embryos are exposed to wide-ranging marine and terrestrial environmental conditions. Despite this fact, very few studies have assessed surf smelt tolerance to climate stressors. The purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effects of climate co-stressors ocean warming and acidification on the energy demands of embryonic and larval surf smelt. Surf smelt embryos and larvae were collected from spawning beaches and placed into treatment basins under three temperature treatments (13°C, 15°C, and 18°C) and two total carbon (CT) treatments (~2018 and ~ 2060 µmol kg SW-1), which corresponded to pCO2 (i.e. ocean acidification) levels of approximately 790 and 2340 µatm. Increased temperature significantly decreased yolk size in surf smelt embryos and larvae. Embryo yolk sacs in high temperature treatments were on average 7.3% smaller than embryo yolk sacs from ambient temperature water. Larval yolk and oil globules mirrored this trend. Larval yolk sacs in the high temperature treatment were 45.8% smaller and oil globules 31.9% smaller compared to larvae in ambient temperature. In addition, the interaction between acidification and temperature significantly increased surf smelt embryo heart rates by 5% above ambient conditions. There was also a significant positive effect of acidification on embryo yolk size, indicating embryos used less maternally-provisioned energy under acidification scenarios. These results indicate that near-future climate change scenarios may impact the energy demands of developing surf smelt, leading to potential effects on surf smelt fitness and contributing to variability in adult recruitment.