Giant Clams and Rising CO2: Light May Ameliorate Effects of Ocean Acidification on a Solar-Powered Animal.

ABSTRACT: Global climate change and ocean acidification pose a serious threat to marine life. Marine invertebrates are particularly susceptible to ocean acidification, especially highly calcareous taxa such as molluscs, echinoderms and corals. The largest of all bivalve molluscs, giant clams, are already threatened by a variety of local pressures, including overharvesting, and are in decline worldwide. Several giant clam species are listed as 'Vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and now climate change and ocean acidification pose an additional threat to their conservation. Unlike most other molluscs, giant clams are 'solar-powered' animals containing photosynthetic algal symbionts suggesting that light could influence the effects of ocean acidification on these vulnerable animals.

SUBMITTER: Watson SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4470504 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature