title: European sea bass show behavioural resilience to near-future ocean acidification.
abstract: Ocean acidification (OA)-caused by rising concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2)-is thought to be a major threat to marine ecosystems and has been shown to induce behavioural alterations in fish. Here we show behavioural resilience to near-future OA in a commercially important and migratory marine finfish, the Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Sea bass were raised from eggs at 19°C in ambient or near-future OA (1000 µatmpCO2) conditions andn= 270 fish were observed 59-68 days post-hatch using automated tracking from video. Fish reared under ambient conditions, OA conditions, and fish reared in ambient conditions but tested in OA water showed statistically similar movement patterns, and reacted to their environment and interacted with each other in comparable ways. Thus our findings indicate behavioural resilience to near-future OA in juvenile sea bass. Moreover, simulated agent-based models indicate that our analysis methods are sensitive to subtle changes in fish behaviour. It is now important to determine whether the absences of any differences persist under more ecologically relevant circumstances and in contexts which have a more direct bearing on individual fitness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University, Singleton Park SA2 8PP, UK; College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duteil
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences , College of Science, Swansea University , Singleton Park SA2 8PP , UK.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Pope
authors.affiliation: Instituto Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain; Department of Physics, Physics of Living Systems Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez-Escudero
authors.affiliation: Instituto Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain; Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: de Polavieja
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences , College of Science, Swansea University , Singleton Park SA2 8PP , UK.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fürtbauer
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering , Swansea University , Bay Campus, Swansea SA1 8EN , UK.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences , College of Science, Swansea University , Singleton Park SA2 8PP , UK.
authors.forename: A J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6870-9767
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: King
keywords: Dicentrarchus labrax; environmental change; fisheries; motion tracking; social behaviour