Climate change and oil pollution: A dangerous cocktail for tropical zooplankton
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Date
2020-12-07
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Aquatic Toxicology; Elsevier
Abstract
Climate change and oil pollution pose a major threat to tropical marine ecosystems and to the coastal communities
relying on their resources. The Gulf of Guinea is severely affected by multiple human induced stressors,
but the potential impacts of these on marine productivity remain unknown. We investigated the combined effects
of heatwaves (climate stressor) and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pyrene (proxy for oil) on the copepod
Centropages velificatus. We quantified survival, reproduction and fecal pellet production of females exposed to
concentrations of 0, 10, 100 and 100+ nM (saturated) pyrene under simulated heatwaves of different thermal
intensity (+3 ◦C and +5 ◦C above control treatment temperature).
Thermal stress due to both moderate and intensive heatwaves resulted in reduced survival and egg production.
The negative effects of pyrene were only measurable at the high pyrene concentrations. However, thermal stress
increased the sensitivity of C. velificatus to pyrene, indicating a synergistic interaction between the two stressors.
We document that the interaction of multiple stressors can result in cumulative impacts that are stronger than
expected based on single stressor studies. Further research is urgently needed to evaluate the combined impact of
climatic and anthropogenic stressors on the productivity of coastal ecosystems, particularly in the tropical areas.
Description
Aquatic Toxicology, 231, 105718
Keywords
Giovanna Albani, Emmanuel Acheampong, Marja Koski, Sigrún H. Jonasdottir, Marja Koski, Torkel Gissel Nielsen, University of Cape-Coast, Ghana
Citation
Ruiz, L. H., Ekumah, B., Asiedu, D. A., Albani, G., Acheampong, E., Jónasdóttir, S. H., ... & Nielsen, T. G. (2021). Climate change and oil pollution: A dangerous cocktail for tropical zooplankton. Aquatic Toxicology, 231, 105718.