Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
While there is increasing evidence for the impacts of climate change at the individual level, much less is known about how species' likely idiosyncratic responses may alter ecological interactions. Here, we demonstrate that ocean acidification and warming not only directly alter species' (individual) physiological performance, but also their predator-prey dynamics. Our results demonstrate that tissue production (used as a proxy for prey quality) in the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides was reduced under scenarios of future climate change, and hence their ability to support energy acquisition for dogwhelk Nucella lapillus through food provision was diminished. However, rather than increasing their feeding rates as a compensatory mechanism, consumption rates of N. lapillus were reduced to the point that they exhibited starvation (a loss of somatic tissue), despite prey resources remaining abundant. The resilience of any marine organism to stressors is fundamentally linked to their ability to obtain and assimilate energy. Therefore, our findings suggest that the cost of living under future climate change may surpass the energy intake from consumption rates, which is likely exacerbated through the bottom-up effects of reduced prey quality. If, as our results suggest, changes in trophic transfer of energy are more common in a warmer, high CO2 world, such alterations to the predator-prey dynamic may have negative consequences for the acquisition of energy in the predator and result in energetic trade-offs. Given the importance of predator-prey interactions in structuring marine communities, future climate change is likely to have major consequences for community composition and the structure and function of ecosystems.
Keywords:
Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Arthropoda; Behaviour; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Borth_OA; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (〈20 L); Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Calculated using CO2calc; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide, partial pressure, standard deviation; Carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Coast and continental shelf; EXP; Experiment; Experiment duration; Feeding rate, energy per mass; Feeding rate, number of prey per mass; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Growth rate; Ingestion efficiency; Laboratory experiment; Mass change; Mollusca; Mortality/Survival; North Atlantic; Nucella lapillus; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH, standard deviation; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Registration number of species; Replicate; Respiration; Respiration rate, oxygen; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Semibalanus balanoides; Species; Species interaction; Survival; Temperate; Temperature; Temperature, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Tissue production; Type; Uniform resource locator/link to reference
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 2670 data points
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