Schools of Medical and Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Mar Environ Res. 2010 May;69(4):234-9. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2009.10.014. Epub 2009 Nov 12.
Marine invertebrate gametes are being spawned into an ocean simultaneously warming, acidifying and increasing in pCO(2). Decreased pH/increased pCO(2) narcotizes sperm indicating that acidification may impair fertilization, exacerbating problems of sperm limitation, with dire implications for marine life. In contrast, increased temperature may have a stimulatory effect, enhancing fertilization. We investigated effects of ocean change on sea urchin fertilization across a range of sperm densities. We address two predictions: (1) low pH/increased pCO(2) reduces fertilization at low sperm density and (2) increased temperature enhances fertilization, buffering negative effects of acidification and increased pCO(2). Neither prediction was supported. Fertilization was only affected by sperm density. Increased acidification and pCO(2) did not reduce fertilization even at low sperm density and increased temperature did not enhance fertilization. It is important to identify where vulnerabilities lie across life histories and our results indicate that sea urchin fertilization is robust to climate change stressors. However, developmental stages may be vulnerable to ocean change.
海洋无脊椎动物配子正在被孵化到一个同时变暖、酸化和 pCO2 增加的海洋中。降低 pH 值/增加 pCO2 会使精子麻醉，表明酸化可能会损害受精，加剧精子限制问题，对海洋生物产生严重影响。相比之下，温度升高可能会产生刺激作用，增强受精。我们研究了海洋变化对海胆受精的影响，涉及一系列精子密度。我们提出了两个预测：（1）低 pH 值/增加 pCO2 在低精子密度下降低受精率；（2）温度升高增强受精，缓冲酸化和 pCO2 增加的负面影响。这两个预测都没有得到支持。受精仅受精子密度的影响。即使在低精子密度下，增加的酸化和 pCO2 也不会降低受精率，而温度升高也不会增强受精。重要的是要确定在整个生命史中存在脆弱性的地方，我们的结果表明海胆受精对气候变化胁迫具有很强的适应性。然而，发育阶段可能容易受到海洋变化的影响。
