Could ocean acidification influence epiphytism? A comparison of carbon-use strategies between Fucus vesiculosus and its
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23RD INTERNATIONAL SEAWEED SYMPOSIUM, JEJU
Could ocean acidification influence epiphytism? A comparison of carbon-use strategies between Fucus vesiculosus and its epiphytes in the Baltic Sea Gerli Albert 1
&
Christopher D. Hepburn 2 & Liina Pajusalu 1 & Tiina Paalme 1 & Daniel W. Pritchard 2,3 & Georg Martin 1
Received: 2 July 2019 / Revised and accepted: 9 October 2019 # Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Reduced seawater pH due to elevated carbon dioxide (CO2), a process known as ocean acidification (OA), is a globally significant environmental issue. OA is predicted to influence a range of ecosystem processes, but little is known about how changing seawater carbon chemistry could influence the extent and impacts of epiphytism. In the brackish Baltic Sea, increased epiphytism is associated with coastal eutrophication and the potential for OA to interact with this relationship remains unclear. This study focuses on slow-growing perennial algae Fucus vesiculosus—which is one of the most important habitat-forming species in the Baltic Sea—and two of its most common and abundant filamentous epiphytes Ceramium tenuicorne and Pylaiella littoralis. Material for this study was collected from Estonian coastal waters. The aim of the research was to determine which carbon acquisition strategies these species possess, which could indicate how they respond to predicted changes in seawater chemistry due to elevated CO2. Carbon-use strategies in macroalgae were determined by analyzing natural carbon isotope signatures (δ13C), pH drift experiments, and photosynthesis vs. dissolved inorganic carbon (P vs. DIC) curves. Our results showed that although F. vesiculosus and its filamentous epiphytes all possess a carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM), the potential species-specific variation in the CCMs operation will favor C. tenuicorne over F. vesiculosus and P. littoralis in a future high CO2 world. Keywords Brackish water . Carbon physiology . Ceramium tenuicorne . Increasing CO2 . Macroalgae . Pylaiella littoralis
Introduction In the brackish Baltic Sea, the perennial macroalgae Fucus vesiculosus Linnaeus is the largest belt-forming brown algae (Kautsky et al. 1986; Waern 1952), which often dominates shallow macroalgal communities (Kautsky et al. 1986; Berger et al. 2004; Torn et al. 2006; Rohde et al. 2008). Fucus vesiculosus is an ecosystem engineer in the Baltic Sea providing function and structure to coastal zones (Kautsky et al. 1992; Schramm and Nienhuis 1996; Eriksson et al. 1998; Råberg and
* Gerli Albert [email protected] 1
Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu, Mäealuse 14, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
2
Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
3
Te Ao Tūroa, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Dunedin, New Zealand
Kautsky 2007). For example, F. vesiculosus provides refugia, food, and spawning areas for range of species (Lehtinen et al. 1988; Kotta and Kotta 2004; Eriksson et al. 2006; Wikström and Kautsky 2007). In coastal areas, F. vesiculosus communities can be found from
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