Effects of elevated CO<sub>2</sub> on fish behaviour undiminished by transgenerational acclimation — ASN Events
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  3. Effects of elevated CO2 on fish behaviour undiminished by transgenerational acclimation

Effects of elevated CO2 on fish behaviour undiminished by transgenerational acclimation (#851)

Megan J Welch 1 2 , Sue-Ann Watson 2 , Justin Q Welsh 1 , Mark I McCormick 1 2 , Philip L Munday 1 2
  1. James Cook University, Douglas, QLD, Australia
  2. ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies, Douglas, QLD, Australia

Behaviour and sensory performance of marine fishes are impaired at CO2 levels projected to occur in the ocean in the next 50–100 years (Munday et al. 2009, 2010; Briffa et al. 2012; Jutfelt et al. 2013; Hamilton et al. 2014), and there is limited potential for within-generation acclimation to elevated CO2 (Munday et al. 2013, 2014). However, whether fish behaviour can acclimate or adapt to elevated CO2 over multiple generations remains unanswered. We tested for transgenerational acclimation of reef fish olfactory preferences and behavioural lateralization at moderate (656 μatm) and high (912 μatm) end-of-century CO2  projections. Juvenile spiny damselfish, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, from control parents (446 μatm) exhibited an innate avoidance to chemical alarm cue (CAC) when reared in control conditions. In contrast, juveniles lost their innate avoidance of CAC and even became strongly attracted to CAC when reared at elevated CO2 levels. Juveniles from parents maintained at mid-CO2 and high-CO2 levels also lost their innate avoidance of CAC when reared in elevated CO2, demonstrating no capacity for transgenerational acclimation of olfactory responses. Behavioural lateralization was also disrupted for juveniles reared under elevated CO2, regardless of parental conditioning. Our results show minimal potential for transgenerational acclimation in this fish, suggesting that genetic adaptation will be necessary to overcome the effects of ocean acidification on behaviour.

  1. Munday, P. L. et al. Ocean acidification impairs olfactory discrimination and homing ability of a marine fish. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 1948–1852 (2009). 

  2. Munday, P. L. et al. Replenishment of fish populations is threatened by ocean acidification. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 12930–12934 (2010). 

  3. Briffa, M., de la Haye, K. & Munday, P. L. High CO2 and marine animal behaviour: Potential mechanisms and ecological consequences. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 64, 1519–1528 (2012). 

  4. Jutfelt, F., Bresolin de Souza, K., Vuylsteke, A. & Sturve, J. Behavioural disturbances in a temperate fish exposed to sustained high-CO2 levels. PLoS ONE 8, e65825 (2013).
  5. Hamilton, T. J., Holcombe, A. & Tresguerres, M. CO2 -induced ocean acidification increases anxiety in rockfish via alteration of GABAA receptor functioning. Proc. R. Soc. B 281, 20132509 (2014). 

  6. Munday, P. L., Cheal, A. J., Dixson, D. L., Rummer, J. L. & Fabricius, K. E. Behavioural impairment in reef fishes caused by ocean acidification at CO2 seeps. Nature Clim. Change 4, 487–492 (2014). 

  7. Munday, P. L. et al. Elevated CO2 affects the behavior of an ecologically and economically important coral reef fish. Mar. Biol. 160, 2137–2144 (2013).