Nov 27 2018
According to a new study, increased oil and gas activities could merge with ocean acidification and ocean warming to have a major negative effect on marine organisms.
These are larvae of the green sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis). (Image credit: NORCE Norwegian Research Centre)
One of the first studies was performed by a research team, headed by Renée K. Bechmann at the NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, to study the effect of various stressors on the marine environment.
Dr Maj Arnberg, the lead author of the study, conducted the study as part of her PhD under the direction of Professor John Spicer and Dr Piero Calosi, who are affiliated to the University of Plymouth’s Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre, along with Dr Sam Dupont from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences (BioEnv) at the University of Gothenburg.
The researchers have reported their study in Scientific Reports, a journal published by the Nature group, in which they explained that the negative effect of future global environmental changes could be minimized through an effective management of local problems, for example, oil exposure caused by a spill situation. According to the team, if this fact is recognized at a global level, it may empower and motivate local decision makers to act and thus increase environment dependence and natural populations in the process.
The researchers’ working theory was that while exposure to local and international drivers separately would have a major negative impact on the early developmental stages of larvae, combined exposure might result in a more adverse impact than seen for single drivers.
A scenario-based, collapsed design was used by the study to examine the effect of two chronic global drivers such as temperature for ocean warming and pH for ocean acidification, and one local acute stressor such as the North Sea crude oil. The study then investigated the collective and individual effects on features of the larval stages of two major invertebrates—the green sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) and the northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis). It was observed that ocean warming and ocean acidification had negatively affected both urchin and shrimp larvae, which resulted in reduced growth, and at the same time, acute exposure to oil also decreased activity, growth, and feeding in larvae of both species.
According to the team, the new study emphasizes the significance of modifying regulations related to oil spill prevention so as to increase the resilience of marine organisms to expected global conditions in the future.
This paper shows that both local and global drivers had negative effects on the larval stages of two keystone species, northern shrimp and green sea urchin. No interactions were observed between local and global drivers and the combined effects, of the two drivers are approximately equal to the sum of their separate effects. It is therefore important to reduce the risk of environmental effects from local pollution to protect the marine ecosystem in a high CO2 world.
Dr Maj Arnberg, Research Scientist, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre.
As one of the world’s top research centers, MBERC studies the effect of various stressors on environments and marine organisms, while postgraduate and undergraduate students are constantly involved in that study.
The findings of our study suggest that when it comes to environmental protection Patrick Geddes’ famous phrase, ‘act local, think global’ may be extended to ‘act local, act global’. Local and global challenges face life in our oceans and it is probably inappropriate to consider them as independent from one another.
John Spicer, Professor of Marine Biology and Study Author, University of Plymouth.