Coupling environmental history with physiological performance: a new direction for ocean acidification research

While studies publishing the variability of nearshore pH and in situ biological response are becoming more common (e.g. Yates and Halley, 2006; Yates et al. 2007; Hall-Spencer et al. 2008; Wootton et al. 2008; Chierici and Fransson, 2009; Gagliano et al. 2010), very few have attempted to couple these physical measurements with direct measurements of biological response of resident organisms to future ocean conditions (e.g. Yu et al. 2011).  We measured physiological parameters of coral larvae from Moorea, French Polynesia in response to future ocean conditions and coupled this biological response with the environmental variability this coral population currently experiences.  We also compared coral larvae from populations of differing carbonate chemistry environments - MCR LTER Fringe 2 site and Nanwan Bay, Taiwan.  pH, temperature, salinity, and total alkalinity were measured at each site to record pH over a 1-3 month period as the physiological plasticity of larvae from adult Pocillopora damicornis collected at each site was examined.  Coral may be locally acclimatized or adapted to the pH variation under which their populations have evolved, a process that is well known in terms of adaptation to temperature in marine invertebrates (Sanford and Kelly, 2011).  This concept can be applied in general to marine invertebrates across a wide variety of marine ecosystems, between which carbonate chemistry regimes are known to differ (Hofmann et al. 2011).