Highlights
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) and dietary fatty acids (FAs) had stage-specific effects on northern rock sole larvae.
- After 2-weeks of feeding, larvae had faster growth under elevated CO2 conditions.
- After 5-weeks of feeding, larvae had higher lipid storage when fed a diet with balanced-essential FAs.
Abstract
Ocean acidification (OA) is predicted to affect the physiological rates of larval fish and invertebrates and is also expected to significantly impact marine fisheries through alteration of food webs. We examined whether mortality rates, body size, and condition of first-feeding larval northern rock sole, Lepidopsetta polyxystra, were synergistically influenced by prey quality (essential fatty acids, EFAs) and high carbon dioxide (CO2) exposure. Larvae were exposed to ambient and high CO2 levels (∼ 330 vs. 1020 μatm) and were fed diets with balanced or unbalanced EFA ratios for 7 weeks immediately following hatch. After 2 weeks, significant effects from CO2 and diet were observed, with the largest larvae occurring in the high CO2 exposure group that received a balanced EFA diet. After 5 weeks of exposure, the effects of elevated CO2 had a diminished impact on larval size, but larvae reared on the balanced EFA diet maintained higher lipid-based condition metrics than those fed an unbalanced EFA diet. Survival was variable across replicate tanks and not significantly different between treatments. This study suggests that L. polyxystra larvae are most vulnerable to OA and food web change at different points in their development. Further understanding of these ecosystem effects will be required to predict the impacts of OA on northern rock sole fisheries.
Copeman L. A., Stowell M. A., Andrade J. F. & Hurst T. P., 2025. Impacts of ocean acidification and altered prey fatty acids on the early development of northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra) larvae. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 589: 152111. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2025.152111. Article (subscription required).
