Do males and females respond differently to ocean acidification? An experimental study with the sea urchin Paracentrotus
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Do males and females respond differently to ocean acidification? An experimental study with the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus Tihana Marčeta 1,2 & Valerio Matozzo 1 & Silvia Alban 1 & Denis Badocco 3 & Paolo Pastore 3 & Maria Gabriella Marin 1 Received: 26 February 2020 / Accepted: 6 July 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Seawater pH lowering, known as ocean acidification, is considered among the major threats to marine environment. In this study, post-spawning adults of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus were maintained at three pH values (8.0, 7.7, 7.4) for 60 days. Physiological, biochemical, cellular, behavioural and reproductive responses were evaluated in males and females. Significant differences between sexes were observed, with higher ammonia excretion and lower catalase activity in males. Respiration rate (after 21 days), catalase activity in gonads and total coelomocyte count showed the same increasing trend in males and females under low pH. Ammonia excretion, gonadosomatic index and lysozyme activity exhibited opposite responses to low pH, with an increasing trend in males and decreasing in females. Results demonstrated that exposure to low pH could result in different response strategies of male and female sea urchins at a physiological, biochemical and immunological level. Reduced female gonadosomatic index under low pH suggested decreased energy investment in reproduction. Keywords Sea urchins . Ocean acidification . Sex . Biomarkers . Physiologicalparameters . Gonadosomatic index . Rightingtime
Introduction Ocean acidification (OA) is a phenomenon of lowering seawater pH, due to the dissolution of rising atmospheric CO2. Alterations of atmospheric gas composition observed during the last two centuries are mainly originated from anthropogenic activities, first from all fossil fuels’ combustion. Since preindustrial time, ocean surface pH has decreased by approximately 0.1 units (IPCC 2013). The present average pH value for shallow and surface seawaters is 8.1, and predicted global
Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10040-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Maria Gabriella Marin [email protected] 1
Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy
2
Present address: Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), CNR, Venezia, Italy
3
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
surface pH reduction is of 0.06–0.32 units by the year 2100 and 0.7 units by 2300 (Hartin et al. 2016; IPCC 2019). Responses to OA represent a species-specific phenomenon, and the effects detected in laboratory experiments are dependent on geographic area and life-history stages of the studied species (Hall-Spencer et al. 2015), as well as on the duration of the experimental exposure (Suckling et al. 2015). There are evidence that OA can differentially affect physiology, reproduction
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