Meeting Abstract

P1.53  Monday, Jan. 4  Ecological genomics of ocean acidification: habitat-related differences in response to elevated CO₂ in larval sea urchins. MATSON, P.G.*; HOFMANN, G.E.; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara matson@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Little is currently known about how anthropogenic induced climate change will impact marine organisms. Ocean acidification (OA) may have a strong effect on the physiology of many species, particularly at high-latitudes. Genomic applications such as DNA microarrays offer an excellent tool to explore these potentially sub-lethal effects of OA on physiological processes in marine larvae. Using an oligonucleotide microarray containing 1,057 genes from the Strongylocentrotus purpuratus genome, recent work in our lab has found genes from several physiological pathways that are responsive to elevated CO₂. However, little is known about how this response varies between populations in different habitats. The goal of this study is to use this genomic approach to explore gene expression responses to elevated CO₂ in larvae of the green sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, from adults at different depths. Adult urchins were collected from shallow (5-7 m depth) and deep (120 m depth) habitats in the San Juan Channel, WA, USA, and larvae developed under three levels of elevated CO₂ to the 4-arm echinopluteus stage. In addition to providing new information on physiological effects of elevated CO₂ on an ecologically important high-latitude species, we hope that this work will shed light on habitat-related differences in susceptibility to OA. This work is supported by a University of Washington Alan J. Kohn Endowed Fellowship to PGM and NSF grant OCE-0425107 to GEH.