Description: The ongoing process of ocean acidification already affects marine life, and according to the concept of oxygen and capacity limitation of thermal tolerance, these effects may be intensified at the borders of the thermal tolerance window. We studied the effects of elevated CO2 concentrations on clapping performance and energy metabolism of the commercially important scallop Pecten maximus. Individuals were exposed for at least 30 days to 4 °C (winter) or to 10 °C (spring/summer) at either ambient (0.04 kPa, normocapnia) or predicted future PCO2 levels (0.11 kPa, hypercapnia). Cold-exposed (4 °C) groups revealed thermal stress exacerbated by PCO2 indicated by a high mortality overall and its increase from 55 % under normocapnia to 90 % under hypercapnia. We therefore excluded the 4 °C groups from further experimentation. Scallops at 10 °C showed impaired clapping performance following hypercapnic exposure. Force production was significantly reduced although the number of claps was unchanged between normocapnia- and hypercapnia-exposed scallops. The difference between maximal and resting metabolic rate (aerobic scope) of the hypercapnic scallops was significantly reduced compared with normocapnic animals, indicating a reduction in net aerobic scope. Our data confirm that ocean acidification narrows the thermal tolerance range of scallops resulting in elevated vulnerability to temperature extremes and impairs the animal’s performance capacity with potentially detrimental consequences for its fitness and survival in the ocean of tomorrow.

Description: Biological traits analysis is one of the most auspicious approaches to study the ecological functioning in marine ecosystems and provides a mechanistic link to ecosystem processes and properties. We used a Biological trait analysis to examine a dataset of 334 macrofaunal species that were collected at 4 long-term stations in the North Sea between 1969-2011. This data include seventeen biological traits related to life history (e.g. reproductive type) and behavior (e.g. feeding habit) of macrofuna species. In order to include all possible attributes of species, these traits were broken down into seventy-two categories. The affinities of the species to the categories were fuzzy coded with a scoring range of 0 to 3 (0= no affinity, 1= low affinity, 2=moderate affinity and 3=high association of taxon with the trait category). Missing values were supplemented by using information from the species in the nearest taxonomic level. If the affinity of a species to a category was not identified and there was no information available for the evaluation, a score of 0 was given for all the modalities associated with that species.

Description: Shells of the bivalve Arctica islandica are used to reconstruct paleo-environmental conditions (e.g. temperature) via biogeochemical proxies, i.e. biogenic components that are related closely to environmental parameters at the time of shell formation. Several studies have shown that proxies like element and isotope-ratios can be affected by shell growth and microstructure. Thus it is essential to evaluate the impact of changing environmental parameters such as high pCO2 and consequent changes in carbonate chemistry on shell properties to validate these biogeochemical proxies for a wider range of environmental conditions. Growth experiments with Arctica islandica from the Western Baltic Sea kept under different pCO2 levels (from 380 to 1120 µatm) indicate no affect of elevated pCO2 on shell growth or crystal microstructure, indicating that A. islandica shows an adaptation to a wider range of pCO2 levels than reported for other species. Accordingly, proxy information derived from A. islandica shells of this region contains no pCO2 related bias.

Description: In southern South America little is known about the biotic response of marine species to large scale climate variability during the Holocene. Fossil shells of the aragonitic bivalve Retrotapes exalbidus (previously called Eurhomalea) offer the possibility to investigate climate variability in the Beagle Channel and past seasonal dynamics of sea water temperature during the mid-to-late-Holocene. This selection is based on two reasons: extant R. exalbidus preserve annual increments in the outer shell layer (Lomovasky et al., 2002 J. Sea Research 48, 209-216); and, although not very common as other venerids, this species is well preserved in different Holocene marine outcrops along the channel. Holocene fossil shells of R. exalbidus were sectioned, polished, photographed and measured, and after examination three of them were selected for chemical sampling. In each case, one-half of the shell was used to resolve the annual growth bands and the other half was used for stable isotopes sampling. In addition, a fragment of each shell was used to C-14 dating performed in the Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory with the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique. Ontogenetic ages were measured by counting the annual growth increments under a stereo microscope. Our results show differences between the three specimens. In the ontogenetic oldest individual (14 years), which gave a calibrated mean value age of 3839 BP, the δ18O values ranged from 1.53‰ to –1.16‰. The two other specimens (8 years), with calibrated mean ages of 5190 BP and 431 BP, gave δ18O values from 1.55‰ to 0.44‰ in the oldest specimen, and from 1.29‰ to 0.72‰, in the youngest one. Besides, we found variations in annual growth increment widths at different radiocarbon ages, probably correlated with environmental changes over the mid-to-late Holocene. We correlated the most positive δ18O values with winter and the most negative δ18O with summer. In addition, the summer values around 3800 yr BP are more negative than around 5000 years or 500 years BP. These findings correlate well with an episode of cooling at ca. 5000 BP, followed by a period of ameliorization (the Hypsithermal at ca. 4000 BP), and towards the end of the Holocene, at ca. 500 years BP, a new cooling event was recorded. This sclerochronological study of the growth patterns and the oxygen isotope ratios in fossil R. exalbidus shells demonstrated that this species clearly exhibited annual cycles showing seasonality patterns through the mid-to-late Holocene, providing an opportunity to analyze intra-seasonal time scales in the fossil record. This study was supported jointly by the CONICET and the DAAD and was made as part of the Scientific Visit of SG to the AWI and the international cooperation from MINCyT and BMBF to BL.

Description: The venerid Tawera gayi could be a suitable Holocene bioarchive for Southern South-America given that it is found in a wide distribution range from the Beagle Channel (54º 50´ S) to 33º S along the Pacific coast, and to the North Patagonia (36°S) in the South Atlantic. In the Beagle Channel, both extant T. gayi populations and shell beds of mid-Holocene origin can be found. On the other hand there is reliable life history information in modern populations (Lomovasky et al. 2005 J. Appl. Ichthyol. 21, 64-69), i.e. shell growth patterns and the confirmation of the annual periodicity of the translucent bands. Finally, the shells provide geochemical proxies, e.g., d18O for temperature reconstruction. In order to investigate climate variability in the Beagle Channel, the individual age, growth increments and isotopes analyses of modern and fossil shells of T. gayi were used. The shell cuts of T. gayi showed a pattern of alternating broad opaque and narrow translucent bands, which were confirmed by acetate peels too. In general, the translucent bands showed a pink to purple colour, similar to internal part of the shell. Both modern and fossil populations showed a maximum age of 13 years old. Radiocarbon dating revealed ages ranging between ca 3800 to 4400 years b.p. in the fossil shells corresponding to the Holocene Climate Optimum. The δ18O values obtained in fossil shells ranged from 1.316‰ to –0.064‰ We correlated the most positive δ18O values with winter forming the translucent bands and the most negative δ18O with summer. The comparison of the von Bertalanffy growth curve showed no difference in the H∞ between modern (32.50 mm; Confidence Interval (CI)=31.07, 33.94) and fossil (33.23 mm; CI=31.94, 34.51) populations, but higher values (p 〈 0.05) were observed in the growth rate k and t0 in the modern (0.37 (0.31, 0.42) and 1.12 (0.98, 1.25) respectively) than fossil shells (0.24 (0.21, 0.27) and 0.57 (0.44, 0.69) respectively). This study demonstrated that this species clearly exhibited annual cycles showing seasonality patterns from the mid-Holocene to the present with translucent bands corresponding to slow or halted growth formed in fall/winter; the growth rate was lower during the past warm epochs than the present possible related to a different productivity in the Channel and/or a lower metabolic rate of the clams exposed to a higher temperature.