Marine Climate Change

[New Publication] IUCN published ocean deoxygenation report!

Posted on December 9, 2019December 9, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

9 December 2019. During the COP25 summit in Madrid, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released its latest comprehensive report titled “Ocean deoxygenation: everyone’s problem” that compiles the current evidence for the ongoing, man-made decline in the oceans oxygen levels. The 588 page, 11 chapter wake-up call to these detrimental changes was produced by leading experts in the field. We are happy to announce that Hannes is one of the many authors of this document, co-authoring chapter 6 “Multiple stressors – forces that combine to worsen deoxygenation and its effects“.

From the executive summary:

“The equilibrium state of the ocean-atmosphere system has been perturbed these last few decades with the ocean becoming a source of oxygen for the atmosphere even though its oxygen inventory is only ~0.6% of that of the atmosphere. Different analyses conclude that the global ocean oxygen content has decreased by 1-2% since the middle of the 20th century. Global warming is expected to have contributed to this decrease, directly because the solubility of oxygen in warmer waters decreases, and indirectly through changes in the physical and biogeochemical dynamics.”

From the summary of chapter 6:

Human activities have altered not only the oxygen content of the coastal and open ocean, but also a variety of other physical, chemical and biological conditions that can have negative effects on physiological and ecological processes. As a result, marine systems are under intense and increasing pressure from multiple stressors.
The combined effects of ‘stressors’ can be greater than, less than, or different from the sum of each stressor alone, and there are large uncertainties surrounding their combined effects.
Warming, acidification, disease, and fisheries mortality are important common stressors that can have negative effects in combination with low oxygen.
Warming, deoxygenation, and acidification commonly co-occur because they share common causes. Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions simultaneously warm, deoxygenate, and acidify marine systems, and nutrient pollution increases the severity of deoxygenation and acidification.
A better understanding of the effects of multiple stressors on ocean ecosystems should improve the development of effective strategies to reduce the problem of deoxygenation and aid in identifying adaptive strategies to protect species and processes threatened by oxygen decline.

Access the full report from IUCN.org

Breitburg, D.L., Baumann, H., Sokolova, I.M., and Frieder, C.A. (2019)

Chapter 6. Multiple stressors – forces that combine to worsen deoxygenation and its effects.
In: Ocean deoxygenation: everyone’s problem. Causes, impacts, consequences and solutions
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Report xxii, 562p.

[New Publication] Conservation Physiology publishes our first sand lance paper!

Posted on November 21, 2019November 21, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

21 November 2019. We are excited to announce the Chris Murray‘s paper on the unusual, high sensitivity of early life Northern sand lance to acidification and warming has just been published in the journal of Conservation Physiology! This is the first publication of our extensive work on this enigmatic species.

Sand lance species play a key ecological role in most temperate to polar shelf ecosystems of the northern hemisphere, but they have remained unstudied with respect to their sensitivity to predicted future CO₂ levels in the ocean. For the past three years (2016 – 2018), we have sampled and spawned with northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and subsequently reared their embryos under factorial CO₂ x temperature conditions to hatch and early larval stages. Our results were striking, in all years, high CO₂ conditions severely reduced embryo survival up to 20-fold over controls, with strong synergistic reductions under combined high CO₂ and temperature conditions. High CO₂ also delayed hatching, reduced remaining endogenous energy reserves at hatch, and in combination with higher temperatures, reduced embryonic growth.

Indeed, given the observed effect sizes, northern sand lance might be the most CO₂ sensitive fish species tested to date.

Murray, C.S.*, Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. (2019)

High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO₂ and temperature
Conservation Physiology 7:1-12

[Lab news] Hannes, Chris and Emma at the 43rd Larval Fish Conference!

Posted on May 25, 2019May 26, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

ChrisHannesEmma_web — Chris, Hannes, and Emma

CapFormentor3_web — Beautiful view from Mallorca’s most northern point, Cap Formentor

peterdominiquearildHannes_web — Peter Gronkjaer, Dominique Robert, Arild Folkvord, Hannes during the conference tour

25 May 2019. Hannes, Chris and Emma attended this years 43rd Annual Larval Fish Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The event was hosted by IMEDEA’s Ignacio Catalan and colleagues and was attended by more than 140 participants. As usual, the small but international make-up of the meeting and made it into a memorable event of science, networking and seed for potential future collaborations. While Chris reported on our past experiments on factorial CO2 by O2 effects on Atlantic silverside early life stages, Emma presented the latest findings on our silverside experiments using computer-controlled CO2 and O2 co-fluctuations.

Before and after the conference, there was also some time to explore the beautiful island of Mallorca with its breathtaking mountain scenery and turquoise coves.

Chris and Emma’s presented:

Murray, C.S., Cross, E.L., and Baumann H. A factorial evaluation of the combined effects of acidification and hypoxia in Atlantic silverside offspring. Talk.

Cross, E.L., Murray, C.S. and Baumann H.Diel and tidal cycles of CO₂ and dissolved oxygen conditions provide physiological refuge to a coastal forage fish, Menidia menidia under acidification and hypoxia. Talk.

A special thanks to Lucas and Callie for holding the fort at home!

[Lab news] Baumann and Dam labs at the Gordon Research Conference

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

WatervilleValley — The beautiful venue of the Waterville Valley Hotel in New Hampshire

OVH-GRCtalk — Hannes introduced the Ocean Variability Hypothesis

GRC2018-Phil-HB — Phil Munday and Hannes chatting along the beautiful hike of Cascade Path

19 July 2018. Members of the Baumann and Dam labs cherished the opportunity to participate in the Ocean Global Change Biology Gordon Research Conference in Waterville Valley, NH.

The particularly intimate format of the Gordon Research Conference was wonderfully conducive to listening to groundbreaking science in form of keynote lectures and posters and to network with colleagues from all over the world. While Hannes gave a keynote lecture about experimental progress in assessing fish sensitivity to marine climate change, Chris, Emma, Jimmy and Hans presented their research all throughout the week during the poster sessions. The beautiful setting of the conference in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the relaxed atmosphere were all contributing to one of the most unique conference experiences all year.

Talks and posters presented:

Baumann H. Using experiments to assess the sensitivity of fish to marine climate change: progress and knowledge gaps. Invited keynote talk.

Murray, C.S., Wiley, D., and Baumann H. Sand lance offspring (Ammodytes dubius) show high sensitivity to combined climate stressors. Poster.

Cross, E.L., Peck, L., and Harper, E. Brachiopod resilience: thicker shells offset dissolution under future ocean acidification and warming. Poster.

Dam, H.G., DeMayo, J.A., Park, G., He, X., Finiguerra, M., Baumann H., and Pespeni, M. Rapid adaptation of a marine copepod to a greenhouse world. Poster.

DeMayo, J.A., Park, G., Norton, L., Finiguerra, M., Baumann H., and Dam, H.G. Costs of adaptation to a greenhouse world for the copepod, Acartia tonsa. Poster.

Baumann-Damlab1 — The Baumann & Dam lab at the GRC hike

NOAA announces funding for our research on sand lance

Posted on September 6, 2016October 29, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

NOAA and Sea Grant fund $800,000 in research to understand effects of ocean changes on iconic Northeast marine life

The Ocean & Atmospheric Research program (OAR) of NOAA and Sea Grant just announced the winners of its most recent round of research funding to better understand the consequences of ocean warming and acidification on key marine resources in U.S. Northeast coastal waters. We are happy and proud that our proposed work on the climate sensitivity of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) was one of the four projects selected for funding. This is particularly good news for Chris Murray, who for his PhD can now expand his experimental rearing expertise to this important species.
This work will be conducted collaboratively with colleagues from NOAA (David Wiley), USGS (Page Valentine), Boston University (Les Kaufman), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Scott Gallager).

You can read the official announcement as it appeared on 6 September 2016 on NOAA’s News site.

Chris RV Auk Sediment grab — Chris Murray checking for sand lance caught by the sediment grab. RV Auk (Photo credit: Jacob Snyder)

[Student video] Climate Change: A Future for Fish in a Changing Ocean

Posted on April 26, 2016July 7, 2017 by Hannes Baumann

A big shout-out to Megan, Rainer, and Liz who apart from their intrepid work as volunteers in our lab also excelled here in their video project for MARN3000. They interviewed Profs. Kelly Lombardo, Michael Finiguerra, and Hannes Baumann about aspects of Marine Climate Change and then cut their answers with researched video material from the web. Note the sartorial touch throughout the clip (6 min)!
Well done, all!