Acclimation and Adaptation of Marine Fishes to Ocean Acidification

Understanding the capacity for organisms to acclimate and adapt to rapid environmental change is critical for making reliable predictions about the impacts of climate change. Many tropical species appear to be highly sensitive to global warming and ocean acidification and have limited within-generation capacity for acclimation to these stressors. However recent experiments with reef fish have demonstrated that some species have considerable potential for transgenerational thermal acclimation. Similar dramatic improvement in performance between generations has been observed in response to elevated CO₂. In this talk I will prove a framework for understanding the various forms of acclimation that can occur in marine organisms and how they contribute to adaptive responses to climate change. I will describe the results of recent experimental studies on transgenerational acclimation in reef fishes and discuss the likely mechanisms involved. I will then examine the potential for genetic adaptation to ocean acidification, using studies on thermal adaptation in fishes as examples, and discuss key knowledge gaps. New studies indicate that some fishes may have considerable potential to acclimate and adapt to ocean acidification and that short-term experiments risk underestimating the capacity of organisms to cope with environmental change.