Integrative Approaches to Understanding Organismal Responses to Aquatic Deoxygenation

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Aquatic Ecology
• Climate Change Biology

Background:

• Global aquatic oxygen bioavailability is declining due to climate change and anthropogenic stressors.
• Organisms face novel combinations of low oxygen with warming and acidification.
• Consequences for aquatic organisms are poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the causes and consequences of declining aquatic oxygen bioavailability.
• To identify mechanisms underlying interactive effects of oxygen with other stressors.
• To propose approaches for future research on organism-oxygen interactions.

Main Methods:

• Review and synthesis of collected papers from a symposium volume on "An Oxygen Perspective on Climate Change".
• Discussion of natural and predicted anthropogenic changes in aquatic oxygen levels.
• Identification of behavioral and physiological mechanisms of stressor interactions.

Main Results:

• Anthropogenic changes are exposing aquatic organisms to extreme conditions and novel stressor combinations.
• Metabolism and energetics offer a unifying framework for understanding organism-oxygen interactions.
• Organismal responses to oxygen limitation vary across biological levels and timescales.

Conclusions:

• Future research should prioritize long-term experiments with biologically realistic variations.
• Cross-disciplinary and integrative approaches are essential for predicting future effects.
• Understanding organism-oxygen interactions is critical for aquatic ecosystem management.