A high biodiversity mitigates the impact of ocean acidification on hard-bottom ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity loss and climate change simultaneously threaten marine ecosystems, yet their interactions remain largely unknown. Ocean acidification severely affects a wide variety of marine organisms and recent studies have predicted major impacts at the pH conditions expected for 2100. However, despite the renowned interdependence between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the hypothesis that the species' response to ocean acidification could differ based on the biodiversity of the natural multispecies assemblages in which they live remains untested. Here, using experimentally controlled conditions, we investigated the impact of acidification on key habitat-forming organisms (including corals, sponges and macroalgae) and associated microbes in hard-bottom assemblages characterised by

SUBMITTER: Rastelli E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7031329 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature