1. Wochenbericht AL563

31.08.-05.09.202

Divergent responses of Atlantic cod to ocean acidification and food limitation

In order to understand the effect of global change on marine fishes, it is imperative to quantify the effects on fundamental parameters such as survival and growth. Larval survival and recruitment of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) were found to be heavily impaired by end-of-century levels of ocean acidification. Here, we analysed larval growth among 35–36 days old surviving larvae, along with organ development and ossification of the skeleton. We combined CO2treatments (ambient: 503 µatm, elevated: 1,179 µatm) with food availability in order to evaluate the effect of energy limitation in addition to the ocean acidification stressor. As expected, larval size (as a proxy for growth) and skeletogenesis were positively affected by high food availability. We found significant interactions between acidification and food availability. Larvae fed ad libitum showed little difference in growth and skeletogenesis due to the CO2 treatment. Larvae under energy limitation were significantly larger and had further developed skeletal structures in the elevated CO2 treatment compared to the ambient CO2 treatment. However, the elevated CO2 group revealed impairments in critically important organs, such as the liver, and had comparatively smaller functional gills indicating a mismatch between size and function. It is therefore likely that individual larvae that had survived acidification treatments will suffer from impairments later during ontogeny. Our study highlights important allocation trade-off between growth and organ development, which is critically important to interpret acidification effects on early life stages of fish

Transcriptome profiling reveals exposure to predicted end-of-century ocean acidification as a stealth stressor for Atlantic cod larvae

Ocean acidification (OA), a direct consequence of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration dissolving in ocean waters, is impacting many fish species. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying the observed physiological impacts in fish. We used RNAseq to characterize the transcriptome of 3 different larval stages of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) exposed to simulated OA at levels (1179 µatm CO2) representing end-of-century predictions compared to controls (503 µatm CO2), which were shown to induce tissue damage and elevated mortality in G. morhua. Only few genes were differentially expressed in 6 and 13 days-post-hatching (dph) (3 and 16 genes, respectively), during a period when maximal mortality as a response to elevated pCO2 occurred. At 36 dph, 1413 genes were differentially expressed, most likely caused by developmental asynchrony between the treatment groups, with individuals under OA growing faster. A target gene analysis revealed only few genes of the universal and well-defined cellular stress response to be differentially expressed. We thus suggest that predicted ocean acidification levels constitute a “stealth stress” for early Atlantic cod larvae, with a rapid breakdown of cellular homeostasis leading to organismal death that was missed even with an 8-fold replication implemented in this study

Effects of parental acclimation and energy limitation in response to high CO2 exposure in Atlantic cod

Ocean acidification (OA), the dissolution of excess anthropogenic carbon dioxide in ocean waters, is a potential stressor to many marine fish species. Whether species have the potential to acclimate and adapt to changes in the seawater carbonate chemistry is still largely unanswered. Simulation experiments across several generations are challenging for large commercially exploited species because of their long generation times. For Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), we present first data on the effects of parental acclimation to elevated aquatic CO2 on larval survival, a fundamental parameter determining population recruitment. The parental generation in this study was exposed to either ambient or elevated aquatic CO2 levels simulating end-of-century OA levels (~1100 µatm CO2) for six weeks prior to spawning. Upon fully reciprocal exposure of the F1 generation, we quantified larval survival, combined with two larval feeding regimes in order to investigate the potential effect of energy limitation. We found a significant reduction in larval survival at elevated CO2 that was partly compensated by parental acclimation to the same CO2 exposure. Such compensation was only observed in the treatment with high food availability. This complex 3-way interaction indicates that surplus metabolic resources need to be available to allow a transgenerational alleviation response to ocean acidification

SOP Biosamplemanagement for samples from expeditions and cruises at GEOMAR

How to pre sample cruise/expedition biosamples to generate FAIR and Nagoya compliant entries in the GEOMAR biosample management system BI

Continuous thermosalinograph oceanography along RV ALKOR cruise track AL580

Underway temperature and salinity data was collected along the cruise track with a thermosalinograph (TSG) together with a SBE38 Thermometer. Both systems worked throughout the cruise. While temperature is taken at the water inlet in about 4 m depth, salinity is estimated within the interior TSG from conductivity and interior temperature. No temperature calibration was performed. Salinity was calibrated with independent water samples taken at the water inlet. For details to all processing steps see Data Processing Report

Presence/absence of jellyfish species Blackfordia virginica in the Kiel Canal 2018-2022

We present presence/absence data for the invasive gelatinous plankton Blackfordia virginica in the Kiel Kanal for the years 2018 to 2022 . The sampling a site is Weiche Groß Nordsee at 54.342N, 9.961E. The sampling was perfomered within framework of the Kiel Fjord Ichthyoplantkton timeseries. Sampling through the entire watercolumn (down to 9 meters depth) was done from FB Polarfuchs using a Bongo net with 500 and 335 micron mesh towed at approx. 3kn speed. The catch of the 500 micron Bongo net was examined directly for the presence of Blackfordia virginica after the haul before being fixed in 4% bufferede formaledehyde solution. During later lab analysis the sample was again examind for the presence of the species. In addition we present accompanying salitnity and temperature measurements at 1 m depth

Continuous thermosalinograph oceanography along RV ALKOR cruise track AL594

Underway temperature and salinity data was collected along the cruise track with a thermosalinograph (TSG) together with a SBE38 Thermometer. Both systems worked throughout the cruise. While temperature is taken at the water inlet in about 4 m depth, salinity is estimated within the interior TSG from conductivity and interior temperature. No temperature calibration was performed. Salinity was calibrated with independent water samples taken at the water inlet. For details to all processing steps see Data Processing Report