TY - JOUR
T1 - Physiological advantages of dwarfing in surviving extinctions in high-CO2 oceans
AU - Garilli, Vittorio
AU - Rodolfo-Metalpa, Riccardo
AU - Scuderi, Danilo
AU - Brusca, Lorenzo
AU - Parrinello, Daniela
AU - Rastrick, Samuel P.S.
AU - Foggo, Andy
AU - Twitchett, Richard J.
AU - Hall-Spencer, Jason M.
AU - Milazzo, Marco
PY - 2015/4/20
Y1 - 2015/4/20
N2 - Excessive CO2 in the present-day ocean–atmosphere system is causing ocean acidification, and is likely to cause a severe biodiversity decline in the future1, mirroring eff ects in many past mass extinctions2–4. Fossil records demonstrate that
organisms surviving such events were often smaller than those before5,6, a phenomenon called the Lilliput eff ect7. Here, we show that two gastropod species adapted to acidified seawater at shallow-water CO2 seeps were smaller than those found in normal pH conditions and had higher mass-specific energy consumption but significantly lower whole-animal metabolic energy demand. These physiological changes allowed the animals to maintain calcification and to partially repair shell
dissolution. These observations of the long-term chronic e ffects of increased CO2 levels forewarn of changes we can expect in marine ecosystems as CO2 emissions continue to rise unchecked, and support the hypothesis that ocean acidification
contributed to past extinction events. The ability to adapt through dwarfing can confer physiological advantages as the rate of CO2 emissions continues to increase.
AB - Excessive CO2 in the present-day ocean–atmosphere system is causing ocean acidification, and is likely to cause a severe biodiversity decline in the future1, mirroring eff ects in many past mass extinctions2–4. Fossil records demonstrate that
organisms surviving such events were often smaller than those before5,6, a phenomenon called the Lilliput eff ect7. Here, we show that two gastropod species adapted to acidified seawater at shallow-water CO2 seeps were smaller than those found in normal pH conditions and had higher mass-specific energy consumption but significantly lower whole-animal metabolic energy demand. These physiological changes allowed the animals to maintain calcification and to partially repair shell
dissolution. These observations of the long-term chronic e ffects of increased CO2 levels forewarn of changes we can expect in marine ecosystems as CO2 emissions continue to rise unchecked, and support the hypothesis that ocean acidification
contributed to past extinction events. The ability to adapt through dwarfing can confer physiological advantages as the rate of CO2 emissions continues to increase.
U2 - 10.1038/NCLIMATE2616
DO - 10.1038/NCLIMATE2616
M3 - Article
SN - 1758-678X
VL - 0
JO - Nature Climate Change
JF - Nature Climate Change
IS - 0
ER -