Species-specific responses to ocean acidification should account for local adaptation and adaptive plasticity

• Published in: Nature ecology & evolution Vol. 1; no. 4; p. 84
• Main Authors: Vargas, Cristian A., Lagos, Nelson A., Lardies, Marco A., Duarte, Cristian, Manríquez, Patricio H., Aguilera, Victor M., Broitman, Bernardo, Widdicombe, Steve, Dupont, Sam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.03.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158; 631/158/2165; Acidification; Adaptation; analysis; Biological and Physical Anthropology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon dioxide; Coastal ecosystems; Ecological function; Ecology; Ecosystems; Environmental changes; Environmental conditions; Environmental gradient; Evolutionary Biology; Harbors; Heterogeneity; Life Sciences; Marine ecosystems; Marine organisms; Mussels; Ocean acidification; Paleontology; Partial pressure; Phenotypic plasticity; Plastic properties; Plasticity; Populations; Species; Stress concentration; Tolerances; Variability; Zoology
• ISSN: 2397-334X
• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0084

Global stressors, such as ocean acidification, constitute a rapidly emerging and significant problem for marine organisms, ecosystem functioning and services. The coastal ecosystems of the Humboldt Current System (HCS) off Chile harbour a broad physical–chemical latitudinal and temporal gradient with considerable patchiness in local oceanographic conditions. This heterogeneity may, in turn, modulate the specific tolerances of organisms to climate stress in species with populations distributed along this environmental gradient. Negative response ratios are observed in species models (mussels, gastropods and planktonic copepods) exposed to changes in the partial pressure of CO 2 ( p CO 2 ) far from the average and extreme p CO 2 levels experienced in their native habitats. This variability in response between populations reveals the potential role of local adaptation and/or adaptive phenotypic plasticity in increasing resilience of species to environmental change. The growing use of standard ocean acidification scenarios and treatment levels in experimental protocols brings with it a danger that inter-population differences are confounded by the varying environmental conditions naturally experienced by different populations. Here, we propose the use of a simple index taking into account the natural p CO 2 variability, for a better interpretation of the potential consequences of ocean acidification on species inhabiting variable coastal ecosystems. Using scenarios that take into account the natural variability will allow understanding of the limits to plasticity across organismal traits, populations and species. Marine species distributed along environmental gradients may experience large-scale heterogeneity in ocean physicochemical conditions. Here, the authors develop an index to account for this variability in studies of responses to ocean acidification.