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Chemical communication in epiphytic communities under ocean acidification

Subject Area Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
Term from 2018 to 2022
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403643647
 
Final Report Year 2024

Final Report Abstract

Ocean acidification (OA) through the uptake of additional CO2 from the atmosphere into marine waters is considered a serious threat to marine ecosystems. However, we yet lack understanding on how OA affects chemical communication processes, in particular connected to resource and habitat recognition of benthic invertebrates. Building on an already established collaboration with marine ecologists from Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN) in Naples, Italy and making use of SZN’s facilities in the ‘natural laboratory’ of volcanic subsea CO2 vents (causing a seagrass meadow ecosystem to experience future OA scenarios already today), this project investigated OA effects on interspecific chemical communication of primary producers and benthic invertebrates inhabiting those seagrass meadows. Based on earlier studies that had demonstrated that volatile organic compounds (VOC) are important signalling molecules in those seagrass meadow system, this project shed light on three main aspects of chemical communication in those ecosystems in the context of OA: 1) It was demonstrated how OA affects the production of VOC from seagrass and epiphytic algae. 2) OA-dependent VOC bouquets were collected from pure cultures of marine algae and their effects on the behavior of marine invertebrates was demonstrated. 3) The project advanced the identification of infochemicals released from the diatom Cocconeis that causes sex-reversal in the shrimp Hippolyte inhabiting those seagrass meadows. As a result, two out of the three goals were fully achieved, and substantial methodological progress on the third goal were made. Specifically, a candidate compound for the sex-reversal mediating metabolite was identified. Overall, this project has yielded major advancements in our understanding of chemical communication processes in marine ecosystems and of how global change (here: OA) may imperil those finetuned ecological interaction mechanisms.

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