Impact of seasonal warming and hypoxia on the behavior of a benthic species Amphiura chiajei.
Supervisor: Jasmin Godbold (SOTON)
Many coastal and shelf ecosystems are experiencing short-term, seasonal declines in oxygen and pH on top of the long-term consequences of warming, yet we have relatively little understanding of the combined impacts of these on the behaviour of marine organisms. Here I present the results of an experimental study investigating the impact of a 2 week hypoxia event on the burrowing behavior of the brittlestar Amphiura chiajei following acclimation to ambient (10.2C, pH 8.1) or anticipated future (+2C, pH 7.95) environmental conditions. Our finding indicates that all the particle reworking variables (Surface boundary roughness (SBR), Lmedian, Lmean and Lmax) of bioturbation measurement showed an decreasing trend during the future climate treatment and decreased pH where showed opposite trend during hypoxia and after recovery. The organisms showed lower bioirrigation activity during hypoxia compared to after recovery period. I found that the individuals took less time to flipping and burrowing during future climate treatment × hypoxia and showed the opposite result for ambient treatment hypoxia. This information is vital in reducing uncertainty when projecting the context dependent ecological consequences of climate forcing.