title: Embracing interactions in ocean acidification research: confronting multiple stressor scenarios and context dependence.
abstract: Changes in the Earth's environment are now sufficiently complex that our ability to forecast the emergent ecological consequences of ocean acidification (OA) is limited. Such projections are challenging because the effects of OA may be enhanced, reduced or even reversed by other environmental stressors or interactions among species. Despite an increasing emphasis on multifactor and multispecies studies in global change biology, our ability to forecast outcomes at higher levels of organization remains low. Much of our failure lies in a poor mechanistic understanding of nonlinear responses, a lack of specificity regarding the levels of organization at which interactions can arise, and an incomplete appreciation for linkages across these levels. To move forward, we need to fully embrace interactions. Mechanistic studies on physiological processes and individual performance in response to OA must be complemented by work on population and community dynamics. We must also increase our understanding of how linkages and feedback among multiple environmental stressors and levels of organization can generate nonlinear responses to OA. This will not be a simple undertaking, but advances are of the utmost importance as we attempt to mitigate the effects of ongoing global change.
authors.affiliation: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA kkroeker@ucsc.edu.
authors.forename: Kristy J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5766-1999
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kroeker
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London SL5 7PY, UK.
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Kordas
authors.affiliation: Zoology and Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
authors.forename: Christopher D G
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Harley
mesh_terms: D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000502:physiology* / Q000633:toxicity; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide
keywords: climate change; cumulative impacts; ocean acidification; thresholds