Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
Climate change is affecting the health and physiology of marine organisms and altering species interactions. Ocean acidification (OA) threatens calcifying organisms such as the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas. In contrast, seagrasses, such as the eelgrass Zostera marina, can benefit from the increase in available carbon for photosynthesis found at a lower seawater pH. Seagrasses can remove dissolved inorganic carbon from OA environments, creating local daytime pH refugia. Pacific oysters may improve the health of eelgrass by filtering out pathogens such as Labyrinthula zosterae (LZ), which causes eelgrass wasting disease (EWD). We examined how co-culture of eelgrass ramets and juvenile oysters affected the health and growth of eelgrass and the mass of oysters under different pCO(2) exposures. In Phase I, each species was cultured alone or in co-culture at 12 degrees C across ambient, medium, and high pCO(2) conditions, (656, 1,158 and 1,606 mu atm pCO(2), respectively). Under high pCO(2), eelgrass grew faster and had less severe EWD (contracted in the field prior to the experiment). Co-culture with oysters also reduced the severity of EWD. While the presence of eelgrass decreased daytime pCO(2), this reduction was not substantial enough to ameliorate the negative impact of high pCO(2) on oyster mass. In Phase II, eelgrass alone or oysters and eelgrass in co-culture were held at 15 degrees C under ambient and high pCO(2) conditions, (488 and 2,013atm pCO(2), respectively). Half of the replicates were challenged with cultured LZ. Concentrations of defensive compounds in eelgrass (total phenolics and tannins), were altered by LZ exposure and pCO(2) treatments. Greater pathogen loads and increased EWD severity were detected in LZ exposed eelgrass ramets; EWD severity was reduced at high relative to low pCO(2). Oyster presence did not influence pathogen load or EWD severity; high LZ concentrations in experimental treatments may have masked the effect of this treatment. Collectively, these results indicate that, when exposed to natural concentrations of LZ under high pCO(2) conditions, eelgrass can benefit from co-culture with oysters. Further experimentation is necessary to quantify how oysters may benefit from co-culture with eelgrass, examine these interactions in the field and quantify context-dependency.
Keywords:
Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (〈20 L); Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Coast and continental shelf; Crassostrea gigas; Disease severity; EXP; Experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth; Growth/Morphology; Identification; Laboratory experiment; Macroalgae; Mass; Mollusca; North Pacific; Number of leaves; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Orcas_Island; Other; Other studied parameter or process; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Pathogen load; pH; pH, standard deviation; Phase; pH change; Phenolic; Plantae; Potentiometric titration; Prevalence; Registration number of species; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Species; Species interaction; Spectrophotometric; Tannin; Temperate; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Tracheophyta; Treatment; Type; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Zostera marina
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 4984 data points
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