Beschreibung: Seasonal mesocosm community experiments: Four successive runs of ca 10 weeks in 12 outdoor mesocosms (ca 1400 L) with flow-through and a orthogonally crossed warming ("ambient" temperature vs warming by 5°C = "OW") and acidification ("ambient" CO2 vs increase by 700 µatm = "OA" and combined warming and acidification = "OWA" ) treatment. The tanks were started with the same community composition (Fucus vesiculosus; mesograzers Idotea spp., Gammarus spp., Littorina littorea; seastar Asteria rubens, filter feeders Balanus improvisus, Mytilus edulis); details in Wahl et al. 2015. Seasonal responses to the various treatments were (a) mean daily relative Fucus length growth of thallus tips (%), (b) relative Mytilus shell length growth (%), (c) mean daily relative growth of Balanus basal plate, (d-f) the relative population size changes of the three mesograzer species expressed as the log of final divided by initial abundances, (g) the relative survival of Asterias (%).

Beschreibung: Warming and acidification of the oceans as a consequence of increasing CO2-concentrations occur at large scales. Numerous studies have shown the impact of single stressors on individual species. However, studies on the combined effect of multiple stressors on a multi-species assemblage, which is ecologically much more realistic and relevant, are still scarce. Therefore, we orthogonally crossed the two factors warming and acidification in mesocosm experiments and studied their single and combined impact on the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus associated with its natural community (epiphytes and mesograzers) in the Baltic Sea in all seasons (from April 2013 to April 2014). We superimposed our treatment factors onto the natural fluctuations of all environmental variables present in the Benthocosms in so-called delta-treatments. Thereby we compared the physiological responses of F. vesiculosus (growth and metabolites) to the single and combined effects of natural Kiel Fjord temperatures and pCO2 conditions with a 5 °C temperature increase and/or pCO2 increase treatment (1100 ppm in the headspace above the mesocosms). Responses were also related to the factor photoperiod which changes over the course of the year. Our results demonstrate complex seasonal pattern. Elevated pCO2 positively affected growth of F. vesiculosus alone and/or interactively with warming. The response direction (additive, synergistic or antagonistic), however, depended on season and daylength. The effects were most obvious when plants were actively growing during spring and early summer. Our study revealed for the first time that it is crucial to always consider the impact of variable environmental conditions throughout all seasons. In summary, our study indicates that in future F. vesiculosus will be more affected by detrimental summer heat-waves than by ocean acidification although the latter consequently enhances growth throughout the year. The mainly negative influence of rising temperatures on the physiology of this keystone macroalga may alter and/or hamper its ecological functions in the shallow coastal ecosystem of the Baltic Sea.