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Impacts of ocean acidification on the palatability of two Antarctic macroalgae and the consumption of a grazer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2025

Hannah E. Oswalt*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Margaret O. Amsler
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Charles D. Amsler
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
James B. McClintock
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Julie B. Schram
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Sciences, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, AK, USA
*
Corresponding author: Hannah E. Oswalt; Email: heoswalt@uab.edu
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Abstract

Increases in atmospheric CO2 have led to more CO2 entering the world’s oceans, decreasing the pH in a process called ’ocean acidification’. Low pH has been linked to impacts on macroalgal growth and stress, which can alter palatability to herbivores. Two common and ecologically important macroalgal species from the western Antarctic Peninsula, the unpalatable Desmarestia menziesii and the palatable Palmaria decipiens, were maintained under three pH treatments: ambient (pH 8.1), near future (7.7) and distant future (7.3) for 52 days and 18 days, respectively. Discs of P. decipiens or artificial foods containing extracts of D. menziesii from each treatment were presented to the amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica in feeding choice experiments. Additionally, G. antarctica exposed to the different treatments for 55 days were used in a feeding assay with untreated P. decipiens. For D. menziesii, extracts from the ambient treatment were eaten significantly more by weight than the other treatments. Similarly, P. decipiens discs from the ambient and pH 7.7 treatments were eaten more than those from the pH 7.3 treatment. There was no significant difference in the consumption by treated G. antarctica. These results suggest that ocean acidification may decrease the palatability of these macroalgae to consumers but not alter consumption by G. antarctica.

Information

Type
Biological Sciences
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antarctic Science Ltd
Figure 0

Table I. Carbonate chemistry of the ambient and lowered pH treatments (mean ± SD). Seawater parameters (n = 8) are calculated from total alkalinity (TA; μmol kg−1 seawater, spectrophotometric pHT (mean ± SD), temperature (°C) and salinity (ppt). Calculated parameters included pCO2 (μatm) and saturation states of aragonite (Ωarg) and calcite (Ωcal).

Figure 1

Figure 1. Feeding preference of Gondogeneia antarctica grazing on macroalgal discs containing ground tissue of the macroalga Cladophora repens and extract of the macroalga Desmarestia menziesii (n = 9). Bars correspond to mean consumption ± SE. The asterisk indicates a significant difference (P < 0.05) in a t-test.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Feeding preference of the amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica grazing on macroalgae exposed to different pH treatments. a. Consumption of discs containing ground tissue of the macroalga Cladophora repens and extracts of the macroalga Desmarestia menziesii (n = 7). b. Consumption of discs of the macroalga Palmaria decipiens (n = 8). Bars correspond to mean consumption ± SE. Letters indicate significant groups (P < 0.05) in a repeated-measures analysis of variance.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Total consumption of discs of the macroalga Palmaria decipiens by the amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica kept under different pH treatments for 8 weeks (n = 8). Bars correspond to mean consumption ± SE.

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