Jérémy Carlot1, Steeve Comeau1, Antonia Chiarore2, Alice Mirasole2, Alliouane Samir1, Micheli Fiorenza3, Catriona Hurd4, Jean-Pierre Gattuso1, Nuria Teixido2
1CNRS-INSU, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, Sorbonne Université, France - 2Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy - 3Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, USA - 4University of Tasmania, Australia
Ocean acidification (OA) driven by increasing atmospheric CO₂ is altering marine biodiversity. However, little is known regarding how OA may impair ecosystem functioning (EF), including calcification, primary production, and nutrient uptake. Here, we conducted community transplant experiments at a natural CO2 vent system to assess how declining pH affects benthic species composition, biomass, and key ecosystem processes over time. Our results indicate that the shift from communities dominated by calcifying and erect species to turf algae and low-lying communities, caused by declining pH, leads to a decrease in biomass and calcification rates, while photosynthesis and nutrient uptake rates increase. These findings highlight the important trade-off in the response of EF, where the decline in calcification is offset by enhanced primary production and nutrient uptake in low pH, which provides critical insights into how OA-induced biodiversity loss can reshape the structure and functioning of marine coastal ecosystems.
Biography
Jérémy Carlot is a post-doctoral fellow with the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche sur mer at IMEV in France. He is mostly interested in measuring the physiological traits of benthic organisms (e.g., calcification, gross and net photosynthesis) to quantify how the ecosystem functioning is changing in the face of global change. His works involve a combination of fieldwork, in situ and ex-situ experiments, and advanced statistical modeling across local and large spatial scales.