Dr Naihao Ye’s laboratory in the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, published an Article entitled “Effects of CO2 and Seawater Acidification on the Early Stages of Saccharina japonica Development” in Environmental Science & Technology (DOI.10.1021/es5058924).

Ocean acidification (OA), derived from anthropogenic CO2 emissions, is a major environmental issue of the 21st century. Anthropogenic CO2 emission has increased from 285 ppm in the preindustrial age to the current level of 384 ppm and will approach～1000 ppm by 2100. Accompanied by substantial global warming, this is projected to threaten the biodiversity and function of marine ecosystems, from the deep sea to coastal estuaries and from the tropical oceans to polar regions.

Dr Naihao Ye’s group have conducted experimental research on the impacts of ocean acidification on the physiological response of marine algae since 2013, such as microalgae Coccolithophore and Antarctic sea ice algae Chlamydomonas sp. ICE?L (DOI. 10.1021/es404866z). In this paper, we demonstrated that ocean acidification has significant negative effects on the microscopic development of brown macroalgae S. japonica in a short-term exposure experiment under a range of light conditions. Under elevated CO2, the alga showed a significant reduction in meiospore germination, fecundity, and reproductive success. Larger female and male gametophytes were noted to occur under high CO2 conditions, and higher light intensity magnified these positive effects. Under conditions of low light combined with high pCO2, the differentiation of gametophytes was delayed until the end of the experiment. In contrast, gametophytes were able to survive after having been subjected to a long-term acclimation period. Although the elevated pCO2 resulted in a significant increase in sporophyte length, the biomass abundance was reduced significantly. These combined results indicate that OA has a severe negative effect on S. japonica, which may result in future shifts in species dominance and community structure in coastal oceans.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41176153, 31200187, 41306179), Hi-Tech Research and Development Program (863) of China (2012AA052103, 2014AA022003), and the National Science & Technology Pillar Program (2013BAD23B01).

Link to this paper:

1.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es5058924

2.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es404866z

The combined effects of ocean acidification and light intensity on the early life history of Saccharina japonica