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Understanding ocean Acidification Impacts onChemical Communication in marine species — AcidIC

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Project Description

One important part of climate change is ocean acidification (OA) caused by the increase of atmospheric CO2 1, that once dissolved in seawater leads to carbonic acid, which then releases hydrogen ions, lowering the water pH2. Since the industrial revolution, the pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.07 and should reach 7.7 by the year 21001 with increased fluctuations of pH during the day3. Past research focused mainly on the impact of lower pH on calcifying species and mineralization processes. However, few studies have investigated the impact of OA on chemical communication, which directly affect the survival of species (detection of prey/predator, mating partner), causing changes in the marine food webs, marine communities (see figure below, made by VM). The systematic study of a globally distributed non-calcifying model species combining chemical analyses, comparative transcriptomics, genetics, CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene knockout experiments should help to better predict how OA impacts the marine communities by modifying their chemical communication, whether acclimation and adaptation occur and at which costs.

Project Acronym AcidICC
Status Project Live
Funder(s) European Commission
Value £174,535.00
Project Dates Jan 1, 2022 - Dec 31, 2023

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