Effects of freshening and acidification on marine benthic animals of Antarctica

초록

Climate change poses a big threat to the Antarctic ecosystem. Warming induces glacier retreat and eventually salinity of seawater can decrease by melting water. Also increased CO2 induced by human activity can decrease the seawater pH in the Antarctica. Here we were interested in how the marine benthic ecosystems in the Marian Cove will change in response to freshening and acidification. We selected Antarctic amphipods (Gondogeneis Antarctica) living in the shallow water and limpets (Nacella concinna) living in the intertidal region as model anamals to predict the fate of benthic animals in future. We exposed them to 4 treatments combined with 2 salinity (34 and 27 psu) and 2 pH regimes (pH 8.0 and 7.6). Though many behavioral aspects remained same under changed conditions, shelter using behavior of amphipods were retarded and moving distance of limpets decreased in the low pH and low salinity treatment. We suspect that multiple stressos of climate changes can induce behavioral changes in the marine benthos in the Antarctica and eventually this may result in breaking the balance in the ecosystems in the Antarctica.