European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

Climate change effects on the ecophysiology and ecological functioning of an offshore wind farm artificial hard substrate community
Voet, H.E.E.; Van Colen, C.; Vanaverbeke, J. (2022). Climate change effects on the ecophysiology and ecological functioning of an offshore wind farm artificial hard substrate community. Sci. Total Environ. 810: 152194. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152194
In: Science of the Total Environment. Elsevier: Amsterdam. ISSN 0048-9697; e-ISSN 1879-1026
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 
    Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee: Open access 370375 [ download pdf ]

Keywords
    Jassa herdmani (Walker, 1893) [WoRMS]; Metridium senile (Linnaeus, 1761) [WoRMS]; Mytilus edulis Linnaeus, 1758 [WoRMS]
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    Ocean warming; Ocean acidification; Offshore wind farm; Ecological functioning; Ecophysiology; Clearance potential

Project Top | Authors 
  • ExPERimental approaches towards Future Sustainable Use of North Sea Artificial HarD SubstratEs

Authors  Top 
  • Voet, H.E.E.
  • Van Colen, C.
  • Vanaverbeke, J.

Abstract
    In the effort towards a decarbonised future, the local effects of a proliferating offshore wind farm (OWF) industry add to and interact with the global effects of marine climate change. This study aimed to quantify potential ecophysiological effects of ocean warming and acidification and to estimate and compare the cumulative clearance potential of suspended food items by OWF epifauna under current and future climate conditions. To this end, this study combined ecophysiological responses to ocean warming and acidification of three dominant colonising species on OWF artificial hard substrates (the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, the tube-building amphipod Jassa herdmani and the plumose anemone Metridium senile). In general, mortality, respiration rate and clearance rate increased during 3- to 6-week experimental exposures across all three species, except for M. senile, who exhibited a lower clearance rate in the warmed treatments (+3 °C) and an insensitivity to lowered pH (−0.3 pH units) in terms of survival and respiration rate. Ocean warming and acidification affected growth antagonistically, with elevated temperature being beneficial for M. edulis and lowered pH being beneficial for M. senile. The seawater volume potentially cleared from suspended food particles by this AHS colonising community increased significantly, extending the affected distance around an OWF foundation by 9.2% in a future climate scenario. By using an experimental multi-stressor approach, this study thus demonstrates how ecophysiology underpins functional responses to climate change in these environments, highlighting for the first time the integrated, cascading potential effects of OWFs and climate change on the marine ecosystem.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors