TERMS-Ocean · Transgenerational Ecophysiological Responses to Multiple Stressors in a changing Ocean

Transgenerational Ecophysiological Responses to Multiple Stressors in a changing Ocean

Global oceans are currently changing at a faster rate than at any other time over the last 300 million years, exposing marine animals to multiple environmental changes. Seawater temperatures are rising (climate change) and the oceans are becoming more acidic (ocean acidification; OA). At the same time, extreme climatic events are becoming more common and particularly in coastal areas, seasonal and daily variability in environmental conditions is predicted to increase. Coastal marine invertebrates are globally important in terms of the ecosystem services and functions that they provide, hence it is vital to determine whether they can adapt and evolve to cope with these multiple environmental stressors at the rate at which they are occurring. One mechanism that marine animals may use to help cope with increasing temperature and OA, is Transgenerational Plasticity (TGP). TGP is where the observable characteristics (e.g. size) in offspring change in response to the environment that their parents were exposed to during reproduction. When offspring display TGP, it makes them more able to cope with the conditions their parent was exposed to than they would have been if their parents had not experienced those conditions. The TERMS-Ocean project examines the role of TGP in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus in response to temperature and OA; sea urchins are common marine animals, integral to ecosystems. The aim of the project is to understand the potential for this mechanism to offer a means of coping with multiple environmental changes occurring at the same time in nature. Although TGP has previously been shown to be an important mechanism for coping with changes in a single environmental condition (for example temperature OR OA), prior to the TERMS-Ocean project, there was little evidence as to whether animals could use TGP in response to multiple environmental changes occurring together. My findings will contribute important new insights into our understanding of the future of our oceans. Society is becoming increasingly dependent on the oceans for food and other services and functions they provide. Consequently, it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of how future changes in environmental conditions will affect the health of our oceans and the animals living in them. The overall project objectives are: Obj. 1: Evaluate at the physiological responses of adult sea urchins to the combined effects of elevated temperatures and OA. Obj. 2: Investigate the effects of parental exposure to multiple stressors (elevated temperature and OA) on the larval development of P. lividus offspring to test for Transgenerational Phenotypic Plasticity. Obj. 3: Examine the effects of parental exposure to multiple stressors (elevated temperature and OA) on post-settlement juvenile development in P. lividus.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз