Sensitivity to ocean acidification parallels natural pCO2 gradients experienced by Arctic copepods under winter sea ice

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Lewis, Ceri N., Brown, Kristina A., Edwards, Laura A., Cooper, Glenn, Findlay, Helen S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Climate change; Diel vertical migration; Ecophysiology; PH response; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Ocean acidification; Sea ice; Zooplankton; Copepods
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/689bdf41-3203-4fd0-af36-6b7ba2c441a6; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1315162110; http://www.pnas.org/content/110/51/E4960.full.pdf+html

The Arctic Ocean already experiences areas of low pH and high CO 2, and it is expected to be most rapidly affected by future ocean acidification (OA). Copepods comprise the dominant Arctic zooplankton; hence, their responses to OA have important implications for Arctic ecosystems, yet there is little data on their current under-ice winter ecology on which to base future monitoring or make predictions about climate-induced change. Here, we report results from Arctic under-ice investigations of copepod natural distributions associated with late-winter carbonate chemistry environmental data and their response tomanipulated pCO2 conditions (OA exposures). Our data reveal that species and life stage sensitivities to manipulated OA conditions were correlated with their vertical migration behavior and with their natural exposures to different pCO2 ranges. Vertically migrating adult Calanus spp. crossed a pCO2 range of