CO₂-driven ocean acidification (OA) threatens marine calcifiers, while coastal ecosystems face increasing trace-metal contamination; their combined effects, and the modulating role of parental environmental history, remain poorly understood. We used the sea urchin Arbacia lixula from a naturally acidified CO₂ vent and a nearby ambient site at Ischia (Tyrrhenian Sea) to test how chronic adult exposure to low pH shapes larval responses to copper and low pH. Offspring from ambient (pH ~ 8.1) and vent (pH ~ 7.7) adults were reared for 48 h in a fully crossed design (two pH levels × three copper concentrations: 0, 5, 20 µg L⁻¹). At 24 hpf, development was dominated by parental history: ambient-derived larvae advanced rapidly, whereas vent-derived larvae showed higher arrest and slower progression, especially under low pH and high copper. By 48 hpf these effects diminished and pH and its interaction with copper became dominant, with both origins converging toward the echinopluteus stage. Nonetheless, malformations rose sharply under low pH regardless of copper, and skeletal-rod morphometrics revealed additional copper-related effects invisible to binary abnormality classifications. Chronic parental exposure did not enhance larval tolerance and sometimes increased sensitivity, underscoring the need to integrate multiple stressors and parental legacy.
Mutalipassi M., Bitetto F. G., Capasso A., D’Aniello I., Torre C. D., Vito M., Fabbrizzi E., Fraschetti S., Matozzo V., Nannini M., Savinelli B., Signorini S. G., Soler-Fajardo A., Dupont S. & Munari M., 2026. Parental CO₂-vent history does not improve larval performance of the sea urchin Arbacia lixula under copper and acidification. Research Square. Article.
