Ocean acidification effects on mesozooplankton community development: results from a long-term mesocosm experiment

Ocean acidification may affect zooplankton directly by decreasing in pH, as well as indirectly via trophic pathways, where changes in carbon availability or pH effects on primary producers may cascade up the food web thereby altering ecosystem functioning and community composition. Here, we present results from a mesocosm experiment carried out during 113 days in the Gullmar Fjord, Skagerrak coast of Sweden, studying plankton responses to predicted end-of-century pCO₂ levels. We did not observe any pCO₂ effect on the diversity of the mesozooplankton community, but a positive pCO₂ effect on the total mesozooplankton abundance. Furthermore, we observed species-specific sensitivities to pCO₂ in the two major groups in this experiment, copepods and hydromedusae. Also stage-specific pCO₂ sensitivities were detected in copepods, with copepodites being the most responsive stage. Focusing on the most abundant species, Pseudocalanus acuspes, we observed that copepodites were significantly more abundant in the high-pCO₂ treatment during most of the experiment, probably fuelled by phytoplankton community responses to high-pCO₂ conditions. Physiological and reproductive output was analysed on P. acuspes females through two additional laboratory experiments, showing no pCO₂ effect on females’ condition nor on egg hatching. Overall, our results suggest that the Gullmar Fjord mesozooplankton community structure is not expected to change much under realistic end-of-century OA scenarios as used here. However, the positive pCO₂ effect detected on mesozooplankton abundance could potentially affect biomass transfer to higher trophic levels in the future.