DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Effects of Ocean Acidification on the Physiology and Species Interactions of Crustose Coralline Red Algae

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Ocean ecosystems are among those most at risk from global climate change. Coastal systems in particular are undergoing rapid change in seawater chemistry that stresses the organisms living there. It is therefore important to assess the potential for biological response to such changes resonating from the species level to ecological communities. This project will assess physiological responses of crustose coralline algae, which inhabit the marine intertidal, to environmental changes associated with global warming. Using available historical information on food web interactions between algae and their grazers, this work will conduct field and laboratory experiments to quantify the broader ecological changes expected from physiological changes in the algae. Results from these experiments will inform models of species dominance based on environmental factors and will be used to predict the fate of important primary producers in the coastal northeast Pacific Ocean. A further goal is to sample archival and modern algae for stable isotopes to reconstruct environmental change over the past century. As climate change alters ecosystems worldwide, it becomes increasingly important for ecologists to collaborate with researchers in other environmental fields. This project applies ecological, physiological, and biogeochemical techniques in tandem to address an important environmental problem and promotes interaction and collaboration between closely related disciplines that have historically remained isolated. This research will make new connections between physiological responses to climate and how such responses factor into community-level changes through species interactions. The impacts of this project are cultural as well as environmental. Coastal communities in the state of Washington, including tribal nations, depend socioeconomically on ocean productivity through the fishing industry. Results from this research will be used to increase local awareness about climate change effects on coastal biology. Additional public outreach will be conducted in collaboration with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to explain climate change impacts on marine ecosystems to a mid-western population whose primary interactions with the ocean occur through public aquaria. By better understanding ecological responses to climate change this research will play a pivotal role in making climate change science accessible to a general audience.