Molluscan ResearchISSN 1323-5818
 An international journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia and 
the Society for the Study of Molluscan Diversity published by Magnolia Press

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Molluscan Research 32(3): 177-180; published 28 Sept. 2012
Copyright © The Malacological Society of Australasia & the Society for the Study of Molluscan Diversity

Ocean acidification and warming reduce juvenile survival of the fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa

SUE-ANN WATSON*1, PAUL C. SOUTHGATE2, GABRIELLE M. MILLER1, JONATHAN A. MOORHEAD2 & JENS KNAUER3

1 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies & School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

2 Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, School of Marine & Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

3 Darwin Aquaculture Centre, Department of Resources, GPO Box 3000, Darwin, NT, 0801, Australia

*email: sueann.watson@my.jcu.edu.au

Abstract

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing ocean acidification and ocean warming; however, the synergistic effects of these stressors on giant clams are completely unknown. Juveniles of the fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa Lamarck, 1819, were exposed to present-day control seawater (416 ľatm pCO2) and seawater treated with CO2 to simulate ocean conditions predicted for the next 50–100 years (622 ľatm pCO2 and 1019 ľatm pCO2). These CO2 treatments were cross-factored with seawater temperatures of ~28.5 °C, ~30.0 °C and ~31.5 °C. The majority of mortality occurred between 40 and 60 days. Survival of juveniles decreased with increasing pCO2 and decreased with increasing seawater temperature. The combination of the highest pCO2 and both the moderate and highest seawater temperatures resulted in the lowest survival of <20 % indicating survival of T. squamosa could be reduced considerably at ocean conditions predicted to occur around the end of this century.

Additional keywords: climate change, carbon dioxide, high-CO2, temperature, ecology, Cardiidae, Tridacninae, mollusc, bivalve, Bivalvia

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