Ocean Acidification

[Lab News] Chris Murray starts his post-doc at University of Washington

Posted on August 31, 2019January 4, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

Chris-Murray

15 August 2019. The Baumann lab is happy to announce that Chris Murray has started his new chapter of life and science at the west coast with the University of Washington. Congrats Chris, we know you will do great!

Chris started his PhD at UConn/Avery Point in September 2014, after finishing his MS in May 2014 at Stony Brook University, NY. While building on his experience in ocean acidification research, for his PhD he studyied multi-stressor effects of OA and hypoxia on coastal marine fishes. He had an outstanding part in designing and building our factorial larval rearing system ("Larval city") in UConn Rankin Seawater lab. The system allows up to nine independent, static or fluctuating CO2 x O2 environments simultaneously. It has been in full use during spring and summer months of the past four years.

After a phenomenally dedicated four years, Chris defended his PhD in December 2018 and recently graduated with this PhD from UConn.

His thesis titled An experimental evaluation of the sensitivity of coastal marine fishers acidification, hypoxia, and warming

is publicly available at the OpenCommons Site of the UConn Library.

Four recent publications of Chris:

Murray, C.S.*, Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO₂ and temperature. Conservation Physiology (resubmitted)
Murray, C.S. and Baumann, H. 2018. You better repeat it: complex temperature × CO₂ effects in Atlantic silverside offspring revealed by serial experimentation Diversity 10:69
Murray, C.S., Fuiman, L., and Baumann, H. 2017.Consequences of elevated CO₂ exposure across multiple life stages in a coastal forage fish
ICES Journal of Marine Science 74:1051-1061
Baumann, H., Parks, E.M., and Murray, C.S. 2018. Starvation rates in larval and juvenile Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) are unaffected by high CO₂ conditions
Marine Biology 165:75-83

[ocean acidification, hypoxia, Atlantic silverside, sand lance, transgenerational effects, climate change]
csm187@uw.edu | Chris' publications

Check out some footage of Chris and his lab mates over the years below!

[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] Whole life cycle CO2 fish are getting sampled

Posted on April 24, 2019April 24, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

18 April 2019. This Thursday was a long day in the Baumann lab, because we sampled and processed over 200 adult silversides from a unique experiment. These fish were fertilized in the lab and reared from eggs to adulthood under different temperatures and contrasting CO2 conditions. We are interested to see, if future ocean conditions have measurable effects on this species fecundity, growth, and oocyte characteristics. We also took tissue and genetic samples, with an effective line-up of hands, i.e., Hannes, Emma, Chris, Callie and Lucas.
Good teamwork all!

[Publication] Brachiopods thicken shells to compensate for shell dissolution under future OA conditions

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

15 April 2019. Today, Emma is happy to report that Environmental Science & Technology have just published the latest paper from her PhD about brachiopod resilience to future ocean acidification. This project involved long-term culturing of a polar and a temperate brachiopod under future ocean acidification and warming conditions. Substantial shell dissolution posed a threat to both species under ocean acidification, with more extensive dissolution occurring in the polar species.

Unexpectedly, we discovered that brachiopods thicken their shell from the inner shell surface when extensive dissolution occurs at the outer shell surface under ocean acidification. This is an important finding to further our understanding of how predicted vulnerable marine calcifiers might cope under future environmental change.

Cross, E. L., Harper, E. M. and Peck, L. S. 2019. Thicker shells compensate extensive dissolution in brachiopods under future ocean acidification. Environmental Science & Technology (published online March 29, 2019).

[Publication] Perspective on experimental OA research published!

Posted on April 15, 2019January 4, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

15 April 2019. Today, the Canadian Journal of Zoology published a perspective on the progress and challenges of experimental ocean acidification research, written by Hannes last year as an extension of keynote lectures on this topic given at the Annual meeting of the Canadian Zoological Society (St. John’s, NL, Canada) and the Gordon Research Symposium (Waterville Valley, NH). The perspective takes stock of the progress achieved in the field over past two decades in four key areas, hoping to inspire particularly new researchers to the field to build on this foundation.

Abstract: Experimental studies assessing the potential impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms have rapidly expanded and produced a wealth of empirical data over the past decade. This perspective examines four key areas of transfor- mative developments in experimental approaches: (1) methodological advances; (2) advances in elucidating physiological and molecular mechanisms behind observed CO₂ effects; (3) recognition of short-term CO₂ variability as a likely modifier of species sensitivities (Ocean Variability Hypothesis); and (4) consensus on the multistressor nature of marine climate change where effect interactions are still challenging to anticipate. No single experiment allows predicting the fate of future populations. But sustaining the accumulation of empirical evidence is critical for more robust estimates of species reaction norms and thus for enabling better modeling approaches. Moreover, advanced experimental approaches are needed to address knowledge gaps including changes in species interactions and intraspecific variability in sensitivity and its importance for the adaptation potential of marine organisms to a high CO₂ world.

OVH-GRCtalk — Illustration of the Ocean Variability Hypothesis positing that the CO₂ sensitivity of marine organisms is related to the magnitude of short-term CO₂ fluctuations in their habitat (e.g., from nearshore to open ocean) and length of their early life stage durations. It suggests that the most CO₂ tolerant marine organisms are those that develop fast and (or) in habitats with large contemporary CO₂ fluctuations, whereas the potentially most vulnerable species are those that develop slowly in relatively stable open-ocean habitats.

Baumann, H. (2019)

Experimental assessments of marine species sensitivities to ocean acidification and its co-stressors: how far have we come?
Canadian Journal of Zoology 97:399-408

[Lab news] Chris defends his dissertation!

Posted on December 8, 2018December 8, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

Chris_committee — Chris smiling after his committee congratulated him on his dissertation defense (f.l.t.r: Chris Chamber, Chris Gobler (via Skype), Eric Schultz, Hans Dam, Chris Murray)

6 December 2018. Today, the whole Baumann lab is congratulating Chris Murray today on his great day of defending his PhD. Chris presented the essence of his research on climate change effects on coastal marine fish to a packed audience in the seminar room, fielded an array of questions, and showed his deep knowledge of the subject during the subsequent discussion with his committee.
Well done, Dr. Murray! We are all so very proud of you!

bubbly-chris — The bubbly is opened in the Rankin Lab in true experimenter fashion!

chris-and-chris-rankin — Chris Murray and Chris Chambers in front of the sand lance tank in the Rankin Lab

[Publication] Meta-analysis of silverside CO2 experiments published!

Posted on November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

28 November 2018. Hannes, Emma, and Chris are happy to announce that Biology Letters just published our latest study, a meta-analysis of 20 standard CO₂ exposure experiments conducted on Atlantic silverside offspring between 2012-2017. All these years of sustained experimental work resulted in the most robustly constrained estimates of overall CO₂ effect sizes for a marine organism to date.
The study demonstrated:

A general tolerance of Atlantic silverside early life stages to pCO₂ levels of ~2,000 µatm
A significant overall CO₂ induced reduction of embryo and overall survival by -9% and -13%, respectively
The seasonal change in early life CO₂ sensitivity in this species
The value of serial experimentation to detect and robustly estimate CO₂ effects in marine organisms

Baumann, H., Cross, E.L., and Murray, C.S. Robust quantification of fish early life CO₂ sensitivities via serial experimentation. Biology Letters 14:20180408

Baumann-etal-BiolLett2018---Fig01 — This figure shows the summary of early life responses to high CO₂ conditions in Atlantic silversides across all experiments conducted between 2012-2017. Effect size was estimated using the log-transformed response ratio (A-D). Error bars are 95% confidence intervals. The responses are considered significant if the confidence interval does not include zero. Panels E-F: seasonal decomposition of response ratios, showing that silverside early life stages are most sensitive to high CO₂ at the beginning and end of their spawning season.

[New publication] Complex CO2 x temperature effects in Menidia offspring

Posted on July 20, 2018January 4, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

20 July 2018. We are happy to announce that Diversity just published Chris Murray’s paper on complex CO₂ x temperature effects in Atlantic silverside offspring. The paper synthesizes 5 large multistressor experiments conducted since 2014, finding evidence for the large CO₂ tolerance in this species across a large temperature range.

Congrats, Chris, to the second chapter published!

Murray, C.S. and Baumann, H. You better repeat it: complex temperature × CO₂ effects in Atlantic silverside offspring revealed by serial experimentation. Diversity 10:69

MurrayBaumann-Fig1 — *M. menidia*. Offspring responses to control (blue), high (red), and extreme (green) CO₂ conditions at four temperatures across five CO₂ × temperature factorial experiments. Traits include embryo survival (A–E), hatch length (F–I), larval survival (J–N) and larval growth rate (O–R). Individual replicates are represented by small faded circles. Treatment means (±SD) are depicted by large, bold circles and connected by dotted lines. Note: different scales used for hatch length measurements due to differences in sample timing; panels F and G use 1dph length Y axis (left) while panels H and I use hatch length Y axis (right).

[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

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

[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the Larval Fish Conference in Victoria

Posted on July 2, 2018July 2, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

Holding the fort at the Rankin lab were Emma and Sydney, who did an excellent job. Thank you guys!

Victoria08 — The Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort was the conference venue

Victoria10 — Before the conference, we all attended a workshop on larval fish identification

https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/fisherbrand-class-a-clear-glass-threaded-vials-attached-caps-pe-poly-seal-cone-liner-8/14955326 — Whale-watching with Corinne, Julie & Chris

Here is how Julie experienced her first LFC:

Ever since attending the American Fisheries Society conference in 2014, I’ve wanted to go to another fish-focused conference. I was lucky enough to attend the 42nd annual Larval Fish Conference this year in Victoria, British Columbia, and it surpassed all my expectations. The week started off with a larval fish identification workshop where we got to learn techniques from renowned larval fish experts (and see some really cool fish larvae!). The talks were impressive and thought-provoking, providing many new ideas for research and how to give an engaging talk. My favorite part was meeting all the larval fish ecologists whose publications I’ve been reading for my thesis. I spent most of my evenings exploring Victoria with other grad students attending the conference and left with many new friends from institutes all over the world! The trip ended with a whale watch, where we saw a pod of 5 Orcas. Overall, the Larval Fish Conference was a great experience that I hope to someday attend again!

Oral presentations:

Pringle, J. and Baumann, H. Sex-specific growth and mortality patterns in juvenile Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) from Connecticut waters. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Murray, C.S., Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. Early life stages of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius show high sensitivity to acidification and warming in a CO₂ × temperature factorial experiment. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Victoria04 — Harbor front with Parliament building

Victoria06 — Local celebrity, the one eyed seal