Meeting Abstract

9.2  Friday, Jan. 4  Effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification on the sea urchin Heliocidaris tuberculata FOO, SA*; BYRNE, M; Univ. of Sydney, Australia shawna@anatomy.usyd.edu.au

The concurrent effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification will have deleterious effects on many marine invertebrates however certain species may show potential for adaptation. Adaptation to stressful climatic conditions depends on heritable genetic variance for stress tolerance present in populations. We studied the interactive effects of warming (+4°C) and acidification (-0.3-0.5 pH units) on development of the sea urchin Heliocidaris tuberculata, near future (2100) ocean conditions projected for the southeast Australian global change hot spot. There were significant effects of pH and temperature on early development with significant interaction between stressors. Decreased pH and increased temperature had negative effects on larval development with smaller larvae in near future levels of these stressors. However there was no significant interaction between warming and acidification on larval development. Multiple dam-sire crosses were used to quantify the effects of climate change on development to assess adaptive capacity.