Evolutionary Fish Ecology

Hannes Baumann Featured paper Synposis

The ‘Evolutionary Fish Ecology’ Lab at the Department of Marine Sciences uses experimental, field, and modeling approaches to address the central question, how coastal marine organisms will cope with the simultaneous changes in their environment caused by global and regional human stressors, and how they are already adapted to environmental variability in e.g. temperature, oxygen, or pH.

Environmental changes include coastal pH, pCO₂, oxygen, and temperature, which are all projected to change with progressing global climate change and urbanization. Marine environments are also affected by size-selective fishing, which may alter the genotypic composition of commercial fish species. We utilize a widening suite of experimental, field, and modeling approaches, welcome undergraduate participation, and coordinate our efforts with local authorities working on issues of Long Island Sound.

Gobler & Baumann reviewed the nascent field of multi-stressor acidification and hypoxia work. A first part firmly establishes that virtually all hypoxic zones in the ocean are also acidified, given that metabolic processes (i.e., respiration) consume oxygen and release CO₂ into the environment. In a second part, the sparse emerging evidence for multistressor effects of low pH (high CO₂) and low oxygen are reviewed, showing that while the majority of effects are additively negative, every study so far has also found synergistically negative effects of combined stressors in at least one trait.
Citation:
Gobler, C.J. and Baumann, H. (2016) Hypoxia and acidification in ocean ecosystems: Coupled dynamics and effects on marine life.
Biology Letters 12:20150976

By Jacob Snyder

UConn Logo University of Connecticut UC Title Fallback