Ocean acidification alters skeleton formation in larvae of the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus

ABSTRACT: Using standard morphometric methods and gene expression profiling with a DNA microarray, we explored the impacts of high CO2 conditions on development of the sea urchin, Lytechinus pictus, a pelagic larvae that forms a calcium carbonate endoskeleton. Larvae were raised from fertilization to pluteus stage in seawater with elevated CO2 conditions based upon IPCC emissions scenarios B1 (540ppm CO2) and A1FI (970ppm CO2). Larval L. pictus were cultured in seawater treated with three different concentrations of CO2. We aerated water in culture chambers with air that had been mixed to different CO2 concentrations chosen from IPCC predictions of future atmospheric CO2 levels (28). The B1 scenario, one of the most optimistic, predicts a stabilization of atmospheric CO2 levels at ~540 ppm by 2100,

ORGANISM(S): Lytechinus pictus

SUBMITTER: Anne Todgham 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-13655 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress