Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Ocean acidification is thought to benefit seagrasses because of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) availability for photosynthesis. However, in order to truly assess ecological responses, effects of ocean acidification need to be investigated in a variety of coastal environments. We tested the hypothesi...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/108344 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 |
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ftunivalicante:oai:rua.ua.es:10045/108344 2023-05-15T17:49:37+02:00 Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Guerrero-Meseguer, Laura Cox, Traci Erin Sanz-Lázaro, Carlos Schmid, Sarah Enzor, Laura A. Major, Kelly Gazeau, Frédéric Cebrián, Just Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ecología Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef" Biología Marina 2020-09 http://hdl.handle.net/10045/108344 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 eng eng Springer Nature https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 Estuaries and Coasts. 2020, 43: 1377-1393. doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 1559-2723 (Print) 1559-2731 (Online) http://hdl.handle.net/10045/108344 doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 © Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Carbon dioxide pH Productivity Seagrass species interactions Ecología info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2020 ftunivalicante https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 2021-03-03T00:16:26Z Ocean acidification is thought to benefit seagrasses because of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) availability for photosynthesis. However, in order to truly assess ecological responses, effects of ocean acidification need to be investigated in a variety of coastal environments. We tested the hypothesis that ocean acidification would benefit seagrasses in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the seagrasses Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima coexist in a fluctuating environment. To evaluate if benefits of ocean acidification could alter seagrass bed composition, cores of H. wrightii and R. maritima were placed alone or in combination into aquaria and maintained in an outdoor mesocosm. Half of the aquaria were exposed to either ambient (mean pH of 8.1 ± 0.04 SD on total scale) or high CO2 (mean pH 7.7 ± 0.05 SD on total scale) conditions. After 54 days of experimental exposure, the δ13C values were significantly lower in seagrass tissue in the high CO2 condition. This integration of a different carbon source (either: preferential use of CO2, gas from cylinder, or both) indicates that plants were not solely relying on stored energy reserves for growth. Yet, after 41 to 54 days, seagrass morphology, biomass, photo-physiology, metabolism, and carbon and nitrogen content in the high CO2 condition did not differ from those at ambient. There was also no indication of differences in traits between the homospecific or heterospecific beds. Findings support two plausible conclusions: (1) these seagrasses rely heavily on bicarbonate use and growth will not be stimulated by near future acidification conditions or (2) the mesohaline environment limited the beneficial impacts of increased CO2 availability. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification RUA - Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante Estuaries and Coasts 43 6 1377 1393 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
RUA - Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalicante |
language |
English |
topic |
Carbon dioxide pH Productivity Seagrass species interactions Ecología |
spellingShingle |
Carbon dioxide pH Productivity Seagrass species interactions Ecología Guerrero-Meseguer, Laura Cox, Traci Erin Sanz-Lázaro, Carlos Schmid, Sarah Enzor, Laura A. Major, Kelly Gazeau, Frédéric Cebrián, Just Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
topic_facet |
Carbon dioxide pH Productivity Seagrass species interactions Ecología |
description |
Ocean acidification is thought to benefit seagrasses because of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) availability for photosynthesis. However, in order to truly assess ecological responses, effects of ocean acidification need to be investigated in a variety of coastal environments. We tested the hypothesis that ocean acidification would benefit seagrasses in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the seagrasses Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima coexist in a fluctuating environment. To evaluate if benefits of ocean acidification could alter seagrass bed composition, cores of H. wrightii and R. maritima were placed alone or in combination into aquaria and maintained in an outdoor mesocosm. Half of the aquaria were exposed to either ambient (mean pH of 8.1 ± 0.04 SD on total scale) or high CO2 (mean pH 7.7 ± 0.05 SD on total scale) conditions. After 54 days of experimental exposure, the δ13C values were significantly lower in seagrass tissue in the high CO2 condition. This integration of a different carbon source (either: preferential use of CO2, gas from cylinder, or both) indicates that plants were not solely relying on stored energy reserves for growth. Yet, after 41 to 54 days, seagrass morphology, biomass, photo-physiology, metabolism, and carbon and nitrogen content in the high CO2 condition did not differ from those at ambient. There was also no indication of differences in traits between the homospecific or heterospecific beds. Findings support two plausible conclusions: (1) these seagrasses rely heavily on bicarbonate use and growth will not be stimulated by near future acidification conditions or (2) the mesohaline environment limited the beneficial impacts of increased CO2 availability. |
author2 |
Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ecología Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef" Biología Marina |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Guerrero-Meseguer, Laura Cox, Traci Erin Sanz-Lázaro, Carlos Schmid, Sarah Enzor, Laura A. Major, Kelly Gazeau, Frédéric Cebrián, Just |
author_facet |
Guerrero-Meseguer, Laura Cox, Traci Erin Sanz-Lázaro, Carlos Schmid, Sarah Enzor, Laura A. Major, Kelly Gazeau, Frédéric Cebrián, Just |
author_sort |
Guerrero-Meseguer, Laura |
title |
Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
title_short |
Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
title_full |
Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
title_fullStr |
Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
title_full_unstemmed |
Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico |
title_sort |
does ocean acidification benefit seagrasses in a mesohaline environment? a mesocosm experiment in the northern gulf of mexico |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10045/108344 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 Estuaries and Coasts. 2020, 43: 1377-1393. doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 1559-2723 (Print) 1559-2731 (Online) http://hdl.handle.net/10045/108344 doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 |
op_rights |
© Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5 |
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Estuaries and Coasts |
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43 |
container_issue |
6 |
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1377 |
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1393 |
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1766156010800545792 |