Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Guerrero‐Meseguer, Laura; Cox, T. Erin; Sanz‐Lázaro, Carlos; Schmid, Sarah; Enzor, Laura A.; Major, Kelly M.; Gazeau, Frédéric; Cebrián, Just

doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00720-5

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They build extensive meadows in shallow sedimentary habitats, typically through vegetative clonal spread. They have been affected by climate changes, including warming and marine heatwaves, sea level rise, altered storm patterns, and (perhaps) ocean acidification (Duarte et al 2018, Guerrero-Meseguer et al 2020.…”

Section: Seagrass Meadowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

Wernberg,

Thomsen,

Baum

et al. 2024

Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Marine foundation species are the biotic basis for many of the world's coastal ecosystems, providing structural habitat, food, and protection for myriad plants and animals as well as many ecosystem services. However, climate change poses a significant threat to foundation species and the ecosystems they support. We review the impacts of climate change on common marine foundation species, including corals, kelps, corals, seagrasses, salt marsh plants, mangroves, and bivalves. It is evident that marine foundation species have already been severely impacted by several climate change drivers, often through interactive effects with other human stressors, such as pollution, overfishing, and coastal development. Despite considerable variation in geographical, environmental, and ecological contexts, direct and indirect effects of gradual warming and subsequent heatwaves have emerged as the most pervasive drivers of observed impact and potent threat across all marine foundation species, but effects from sea level rise, ocean acidification, and increased storminess are expected to increase. Documented impacts include changes in the genetic structures, physiology, abundance, and distribution of the foundation species themselves and changes to their interactions with other species, with flow-on effects to associated communities, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. We discuss strategies to support marine foundation species into the Anthropocene, in order to increase their resilience and ensure the persistence of the ecosystem services they provide. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 16 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

show abstract

Section: Seagrass Meadowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

Wernberg,

Thomsen,

Baum

et al. 2024

Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These surprising results are becoming more common in recent studies [72,73], showing that seagrass responses to CO 2 enrichment are more complex than suggested in previous studies [74].…”

Section: Interactions Of Temperature and Co 2 Concentrations On Seedling's Trait Responsesmentioning

confidence: 59%

Rising Temperature Is a More Important Driver Than Increasing Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in the Trait Responses of Enhalus acoroides Seedlings

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasing temperature and CO2 concentration are among the most important factors affecting marine ecosystems under climate change. We investigated the morphological, biochemical, and physiological trait responses of seedlings of the tropical seagrass Enhalus acoroides under experimental conditions. Trait responses were greater under temperature effects than increasing CO2 concentration. Seedlings under rising temperatures showed enhanced leaf growth, lower leaf nutrient content, and stimulated down-regulating mechanisms in terms of photo-physiology. Increasing CO2 concentrations did not show any significant effects independently. There was a significant interaction for some of the trait responses considered, such as leaf number and carbon content in the roots, and trends of higher starch concentrations in the leaves and lower rETRmax under combined enriched CO2 and high temperature, even though none of these interactions were synergistic. Understanding the single and interactive trait responses of seagrass seedlings to increasing temperature and CO2 concentration is of importance to determine the relative responses of early life stages of seagrasses, which may differ from adult plants, in order to form a more holistic view of seagrass ecosystem health under climate change.

show abstract

“…An 8-week experiment performed with Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima under mesohaline conditions (salinity ≅ 20 (PSS-78, Lewis 1980)) in outdoor aquaria found no effect on species composition, plant morphology, tissue C or N content, or rapid light curve parameters measured using variable fluorescence (Guerrero-Meseguer et al 2020). However, rapid light curves produced by variable fluorescence instruments can be insensitive to CO 2 limitation of photosynthesis if alternate pathways for photochemical quenching (e.g., photorespiration) and non-photochemical quenching (e.g., xanthophyll cycling) are active.…”

Section: To Whole Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling up: Predicting the Impacts of Climate Change on Seagrass Ecosystems

Zimmerman

2020

Estuaries and Coasts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since Susan Williams and I started our scientific careers in the mid-1970s, seagrass science has been transformed from a largely descriptive field to an increasingly quantitative and predictive endeavor that requires a mechanistic understanding of environmental influence on metabolic networks that control energy assimilation, growth, and reproduction. Although the potential impacts of environment on gene products are myriad, important phenotypic responses are often regulated by a few key points in metabolic networks where externally supplied resources or physiological substrates limit reaction kinetics. Environmental resources commonly limiting seagrass productivity, survival, and growth include light, temperature, and CO 2 availability that control carbon assimilation and sucrose formation, and regulate stress responses to environmental change. Here I present a systems approach to quantify the responses of seagrasses to shifts in environmental factors that control fundamental physiological processes and whole plant performance in the context of a changing climate. This review shows that our ability to understand the past and predict the future trajectory of seagrass-based ecosystems can benefit from a mechanistic understanding of the responses of these remarkable plants to the simultaneous impacts of ocean acidification, climate warming, and eutrophication that are altering ecosystem function across the globe.

show abstract

Does Ocean Acidification Benefit Seagrasses in a Mesohaline Environment? A Mesocosm Experiment in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Cited by 14 publications

References 66 publications

Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

Rising Temperature Is a More Important Driver Than Increasing Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in the Trait Responses of Enhalus acoroides Seedlings

Scaling up: Predicting the Impacts of Climate Change on Seagrass Ecosystems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About