Within- and transgenerational stress legacy effects of ocean acidification on red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) growth and survival
Creators: name: Neylan, Isabelle
name: Swezey, Daniel
name: Boles, Sara
name: Gross, Jackson
name: Sih, Andrew
name: Stachowicz, John
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Haliotis rufescens
subject: Ocean acidification
subject: abalone
subject: carry over effects
subject: stress legacy
subject: transgenerational plasticity
subject: General Environmental Science
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Environmental chemistry
subject: Global and Planetary Change

description: Understanding the mechanisms by which individual organisms respond and populations adapt to global climate change is a critical challenge. The role of plasticity and acclimation, within and across generations, may be essential given the pace of change. We investigated plasticity across generations and life stages in response to ocean acidification (OA), which poses a growing threat to both wild populations and the sustainable aquaculture of shellfish. Most studies of OA on shellfish focus on acute effects, and less is known regarding the longer-term carryover effects that may manifest within or across generations. We assessed these longer-term effects in red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) using a multi-generational split-brood experiment. We spawned adults raised in ambient conditions to create offspring that we then exposed to high pCO2 (1,180 μatm; simulating OA) or low pCO2 (450 μatm; control or ambient conditions) during the first three months of life. We then allowed these animals to reach maturity in ambient common garden conditions for four years before returning the adults into high or low pCO2 treatments for 11 months and measuring growth and reproductive potential. Early-life exposure to OA in the F1 generation decreased adult growth rate, even after 5 years, especially when abalone were re-exposed to OA as adults. Adult, but not early-life exposure, to OA negatively impacted fecundity. We then exposed the F2 offspring to high or low pCO2 treatments for the first three months of life in a fully factorial, split-brood design. We found negative transgenerational effects of parental OA exposure on survival and growth of F2 offspring, in addition to significant direct effects of OA on F2 survival. These results show that the negative impacts of OA can last within and across generations, but that buffering against OA conditions at critical life-history windows can mitigate these effects.
description: Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62Award Number: 1650042
Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62Award Number: 1456724
Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62Award Number: 1829976
Funding provided by: California Sea GrantCrossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/02yn1nr06Award Number: NA18OAR4170073
Funding provided by: United States NavyCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100009896Award Number: N62473-2-0023
description: We ran a fully crossed factorial, split-brood experiment with a low pCO2 (mean condition: 450 matm, pHT 8.00, Waragonite = 2.08) treatment representing non-upwelling, current ocean conditions and a high pCO2 (mean condition: 1,180 matm, pHT 7.65, Waragonite = 0.91) treatment representing strong upwelling pH values observed along the California coast, as well as near-future persistent values predicted to become increasingly common with ocean acidification. We created F1 offspring from brood stock (F0) described below and carried out F1 and F2 exposure treatments during the parents' (F1) larval and post-settlement phases (first three months of life; F1 early-life exposure; detailed in Swezey et al. 2020), the parents' (F1) mature reproductive phase (for 14 months total prior to spawning; F1 adult exposure), and again during the offsprings' (F2) larval and post-settlement phases (first three months; F2 early-life exposure) (Fig. 1). We performed experiments in a flow-through system used in previous OA manipulation experiments allowing us to precisely control water temperature (held at 14°C) and chemistry during the early-life (larval, post-larval, and juvenile phases) and adult exposures.