Culturing experiments were performed with the benthic foraminifer Ammonia aomoriensis from Flensburg Fjord, western Baltic Sea. The experiments simulated a projected rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. We exposed specimens to 5 seawater pCO2 levels ranging from 618 µatm (pH 7.9) to 3130 µatm (pH 7.2) for 6 wk. Growth rates and mortality differed significantly among pCO2 treatments. The highest increase of mean test diameter (19%) was observed at 618 µatm. At partial pressures >1829 µatm, the mean test diameter was observed to decrease, by up to 22% at 3130 µatm. At pCO2 levels of 618 and 751 µatm, A. aomoriensis tests were found intact after the experiment. The outer chambers of specimens incubated at 929 and 1829 µatm were severely damaged by corrosion. Visual inspection of specimens incubated at 3130 µatm revealed wall dissolution of all outer chambers, only their inner organic lining stayed intact. Our results demonstrate that pCO2 values of >=929 µatm in Baltic Sea waters cause reduced growth of A. aomoriensis and lead to shell dissolution. The bottom waters in Flensburg Fjord and adjacent areas regularly experience pCO2 levels in this range during summer and fall. Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are likely to extend and intensify these periods of undersaturation. This may eventually slow down calcification in A. aomoriensis to the extent that net carbonate precipitation terminates. The possible disappearance of this species from the Baltic Sea and other areas prone to seasonal undersaturation would likely cause significant shifts in shallow-water benthic ecosystems in the near future.
Mortality/survival of animals in nutrition treatments 'm' (methane), 'a+m' (algae and methane) and 'a' (algae), that were not sacrificed for other analyses (initial animal numbers: 9-10).
Global change exposes brown algal Fucus vesiculosus populations to increasing temperature and pCO2, which may threaten individuals, in particular the early life-stages. Genetic diversity of F. vesiculosus populations is low in the Baltic compared to Atlantic populations. This might jeopardise their potential for adaptation to environmental changes. Here, we report on the responses of early life-stage F. vesiculosus to warming and acidification in a near-natural scenario maintaining natural and seasonal variation (spring 2013–2014) of the Kiel Fjord in the Baltic Sea, Germany (54°27ʹN, 10°11ʹW). We assessed how stress sensitivity differed among sibling groups and how genetic diversity of germling populations affected their stress tolerance. Warming increased growth rates of Fucus germlings in spring and in early summer, but led to higher photoinhibition in spring and decreased their survival in late summer. Acidification increased germlings' growth in summer but otherwise showed much weaker effects than warming. During the colder seasons (autumn and winter), growth was slow while survival was high compared to spring and summer, all at ambient temperatures. A pronounced variation in stress response among genetically different sibling groups (full-sib families) suggests a genotypic basis for this variation and thus a potential for adaptation for F. vesiculosus populations to future conditions. Corroborating this, survival in response to warming in populations with higher diversity was better than the mean survival of single sibling groups. We conclude that impacts on early life-stages depend on the combination of stressors and season and that genetic variation is crucial for the tolerance to global change stress.