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Predicting the future is hard, unless you\u2019ve got a crystal ball. In the basement of the Sitka Sound Science Center, a researcher has designed an experiment to study the future of ocean acidification, and her \u201ccrystal ball\u201d is herring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Part 2 of KCAW\u2019s\u00a0two-part story on the 2020 herring season<\/a>\u00a0in Sitka Sound, Katherine Rose visits the lab of doctoral researcher Lauren Bell, as she explores possible futures for our oceans, and one of its most important resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lauren Bell stands in about an inch of water, hovering over one of over twenty tanks in the basement of the Sitka Sound Science Center. The equipment used in this experiment is loud, and artificial sunlight bounces off Bell\u2019s face as she tells me about the different types of seaweed she\u2019s growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe seaweed have grown a lot, they\u2019ve been sitting in these conditions for about a month now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell is a PhD student at UC Santa Cruz, and for the last couple of years she\u2019s been doing her research in the center\u2019s basement. She\u2019s been trying to replicate what Southeast Alaska\u2019s waters will look like when our grandchildren are getting up there in age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe projected change in Sitka Sound due to climate change, these added carbon emissions that are coming into our atmosphere, is that we\u2019re going to see a gradual warming of our waters throughout the year,\u201d she says. \u201cAt any time of the year they expect that within 80 years we\u2019re going to see about a a 7 degree increase Fahrenheit in water temperature.\u201d Bell uses hot tub heaters to simulate future temperatures and then bubbles in carbon dioxide, creating acidified water. Then researchers can put any marine organism from Sitka Sound into those conditions and see how they respond. This spring, they looked at two different kinds of seaweed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing how that impacts their growth, their productivity, how they photosynthesize in different light, their chemical defenses,\u201d Bell says. Bell says the fish that were exposed to only higher temperatures were shorter with larger yolks. And when you looked at ocean acidification they were actually longer with smaller yolks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo clearly these two different things that are stressing them out are stressing them out in different ways,\u201d she says. But when you looked at them at the molecular level, at the RNA to DNA ratio, Bell says the eggs raised under future conditions were compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt hides the fact that they\u2019re stressed because they almost cancel each other out, but they\u2019re still affected,\u201d she says. \u201cYou look at their molecular level, they\u2019re still not in good condition. That\u2019s kind of terrifying. Like, okay, well maybe in the future look at them and we go \u2018Oh, they\u2019re fine, they look fine!\u2019 but actually if you look at their protein expression they\u2019re not functioning as well as they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell says she doesn\u2019t know exactly why the two factors would cause this reaction, but the effects are hard to ignore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s something going on, they\u2019re stressed out, and we need to be very careful about what we\u2019re using to determine how stressed they are in order to say whether they\u2019re going to be compromised in the future,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Alaska Department of Fish and Game doesn\u2019t take the RNA:DNA ratio into account when it\u2019s monitoring Sitka\u2019s herring population, although it does keep tabs on average weight and age classes. ADF&G biologist Sherri Dressel says the department takes climate change into account in its model by keeping tabs on temperature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf temperature changes for a block of years and that affects herring survival, we are able to estimate a survival during blocks of similar temperature,\u201d says Dressel. \u201cIf there is long-term climate change, and the temperature continues to go up, this model allows us to estimate estimates, frankly of temperature over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says modeling takes ocean acidification into very broad account because there haven\u2019t been many studies of the effects of ocean acidification on Pacific herring. She\u2019s excited to see Bell\u2019s results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith research like Lauren is doing- when we learn sort of the trigger points, or how ocean acidification affects certain life stages, then we may be able to incorporate it more effectively and more narrowly.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read or listen to more about Bell’s research on herring here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KCAW.org | Katherine Rose |\u00a0Jul 17, 2020 Predicting the future is hard, unless you\u2019ve got a crystal ball. In the basement of the Sitka Sound Science Center, a researcher has designed an experiment to study the future of ocean acidification, … Continue reading
The excess carbon means nearby waters will become more acidic- the phenomenon known as \u201cocean acidification.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seaweed may or may not do better under some of these conditions. She doesn\u2019t have results for this experiment yet- that takes a little while.
But last year, I visited her in the same basement, where she was monitoring herring roe<\/a> to see how climate change could affect Pacific herring, and she now has the preliminary results from that study. Bell compared herring eggs from fertilization to hatch in four different conditions. She looked at how they were affected by warmer temperature, more acidic conditions, and water that was both warmer and more acidic. Bell found significant differences between herring eggs grown under those future conditions, and those grown in today\u2019s conditions.
\u201cIt seemed like warming and acidification had very different impacts on actually what they looked like, how big they were and how well they could use their yolks,\u201d Bell says. \u201cAnd they had opposite effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But here\u2019s the really interesting thing: When Bell examined herring in future conditions, raised in both warmer temperatures and more acidic waters at the same time, the herring didn\u2019t look much different from the herring raised in today\u2019s conditions. Bell says it was like the two factors cancelled each other out. The fact that they were raised in harsher conditions was invisible to the naked eye\u2026and the scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n