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Tolerance of juvenile barnacles (Amphibalanus improvisus) to warming and elevated pCO2

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Abstract

We investigated the impacts of warming and elevated pCO2 on newly settled Amphibalanus improvisus from Kiel Fjord, an estuarine ecosystem characterized by significant natural pCO2 variability. In two experiments, juvenile barnacles were maintained at two temperature and three pCO2 levels (20/24 °C, 700–2,140 μatm) for 8 weeks in a batch culture and at four pCO2 levels (20 °C, 620–2,870 μatm) for 12 weeks in a water flow-through system. Warming as well as elevated pCO2 hardly affected growth or the condition index of barnacles, although some factor combinations led to temporal significances in enhanced or reduced growth with an increase in pCO2. While warming increased the shell strength of A. improvisus individuals, elevated pCO2 had only weak effects. We demonstrate a strong tolerance of juvenile A. improvisus to mean acidification levels of about 1,000 μatm pCO2 as is already naturally experienced by the investigated barnacle population.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the divers of the benthic ecology group at the GEOMAR and Jörn Thomsen for water sampling; Arne Körtzinger and Mandy Kierspel for pH, C T, and A T measurements; Jon Havenhand and Martin Ogemark for valuable advice on algal culture methods; Sarah Klünder and Giannina Hattich for maintenance as well as Hagen Pieper for map illustrations. This project was financed by the cluster of excellence “the future ocean” (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft—DFG; Neglected Bottleneck: D1067/34.1), the German National Academic Foundation and the BioAcid project (Federal Ministry of Education and Research—BMBF; D10/4.1.2; FKZ 03F0608A).

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  1. Department of Marine Ecology, GEOMAR—Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    Christian Pansch, Ali Nasrolahi, Yasmin Shirin Appelhans & Martin Wahl

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  1. Christian Pansch
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Correspondence to Christian Pansch.

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Communicated by S. Dupont.

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Pansch, C., Nasrolahi, A., Appelhans, Y.S. et al. Tolerance of juvenile barnacles (Amphibalanus improvisus) to warming and elevated pCO2 . Mar Biol 160, 2023–2035 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-2069-4

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