Searching for signs of resilience in over-wintering juvenile pteropods to ocean acidification and deoxygenation

Meeting: NOAA NWFSC Science Symposium 2020

Location: Virtual

Presentation Type: Rapid-fire (7 minutes)

Title: Searching for signs of resilience in over-wintering juvenile pteropods to ocean acidification and deoxygenation

Authors: Shelly Trigg*, Shallin Busch, Paul McElhany, Michael Maher, Danielle Perez, Caitlin O’Brien, and Krista Nichols

Abstract: The planktonic pteropod is an important ecological species with roles in marine food webs, oceanic carbon cycling, and potentially serving as an indicator of ocean acidification. Although lab and field studies have shown pteropods are sensitive to ocean acidification conditions, in Puget Sound these organisms have been coping with low oxygen and aragonite saturation conditions during winters when food availability is low. To better understand the molecular mechanisms behind their resilience-yielding adaptive physiology, we subjected pteropods to low oxygen and aragonite saturation conditions in a 2-factor experimental design, and surveyed metabolite and lipid profiles with untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics. We found that low oxygen had a stronger effect on both lipids and metabolites than aragonite saturation, consistent with our past similarly designed Dungeness crab metabolomic study. Preliminary biochemical pathway analysis suggests phosphatidylcholine metabolism is affected, which could be part of a mechanism for increasing oxygen transport. Our study elucidates potential mechanisms of resilience to these environmental stressors and expands our overall understanding of how pteropods might respond to future ocean conditions.