Behavioural stress propagation in benthic invertebrates caused by acute pH drop-induced metabolites

Feugere, Lauric; Angell, Lauren; Fagents, James; Nightingale, Rebecca; Rowland, Kirsty; Skinner, Saffiyah; Hardege, Jőrg; Bartels-Hardege, Helga; Wollenberg Valero, Katharina C.

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.773870

Behavioural stress propagation in benthic invertebrates caused by acute pH drop-induced metabolites

Feugere, Lauric; Angell, Lauren; Fagents, James; Nightingale, Rebecca; Rowland, Kirsty; Skinner, Saffiyah; Hardege, Jőrg; Bartels-Hardege, Helga; Wollenberg Valero, Katharina C.

Authors

Lauric Feugere

Lauren Angell

James Fagents

Rebecca Nightingale

Kirsty Rowland

Saffiyah Skinner

Jőrg Hardege

Helga Bartels-Hardege

Katharina C. Wollenberg Valero

Abstract

Studies on pH stress in marine animals typically focus on direct or species-specific aspects. We here test the hypothesis that a drop to pH = 7.6 indirectly affects the intra- and interspecific interactions of benthic invertebrates by means of chemical communication. We recorded fitness-relevant behaviours of small hermit crabs Diogenes pugilator, green shore crabs Carcinus maenas, and harbour ragworms Hediste diversicolor in response to short-term pH drop, and to putative stress metabolites released by conspecifics or gilt-head sea bream Sparus aurata during 30 minutes of acute pH drop. Not only did acute pH drop itself impair time to find a food cue in small hermit crabs and burrowing in harbour ragworms, but similar effects were observed under exposure to pH drop-induced stress metabolites. Stress metabolites from S. aurata, but not its regular control metabolites, also induced avoidance responses in all recipient species. Here, we confirm that a short-term abrupt pH drop, an abiotic stressor, has the capacity to trigger the release of metabolites which induce behavioural responses in conspecific and heterospecific individuals, which can be interpreted as a behavioural cost. Our findings that stress responses can be indirectly propagated through means of chemical communication warrant further research to confirm the effect size of the behavioural impairments caused by stress metabolites and to characterise their chemical nature.

Citation

Feugere, L., Angell, L., Fagents, J., Nightingale, R., Rowland, K., Skinner, S., Hardege, J., Bartels-Hardege, H., & Wollenberg Valero, K. C. (2021). Behavioural stress propagation in benthic invertebrates caused by acute pH drop-induced metabolites. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, Article 773870. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.773870

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Nov 9, 2021
Online Publication Date	Nov 30, 2021
Publication Date	Nov 30, 2021
Deposit Date	Nov 10, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Dec 7, 2021
Journal	Frontiers in Marine Science
Electronic ISSN	2296-7745
Publisher	Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	8
Article Number	773870
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.773870
Keywords	Behavioural cost; Stress propagation; Stress metabolites; Chemical communication; Ocean acidification
Public URL	https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3759093

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2021 Feugere, Angell, Fagents, Nightingale, Rowland, Skinner, Hardege, Bartels-Hardege and Wollenberg Valero. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.