Sean Place, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the University of South Carolina's Environment and Sustainability Program, will travel to Antarctica in October to conduct research with the Notothenlidae family of fish that thrives in the nearly freezing water there. His project is supported by a $628,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

“We want to get more insight into the adaptability of these fish because we already know small changes in water temperature are enough to kill them,” Place said. “If the Antarctic fish, with very narrow tolerances, have the capacity to deal with changes in their environment at the rate which we expect climatic changes to occur, then it is likely that other fish species from more temperate waters can adapt too, given that temperate species are more accustomed to experiencing changes in their environments.”

Climate change predictions often reference rising ocean temperatures, but the ocean’s acidity is expected to rise, as well, as increasing levels of CO2 dissolve into the surface water. That one-two punch of warmer water and higher acidity could stress fish populations, Place said.

“In my opinion, most fish may not be affected much by changes in acidity alone—they have good mechanisms for acid/base regulation,” he said. “But as they deal with higher acidity and warmer temperatures together, will that take away energy they need for other things—reproduction and growth, for example? “Every organism has to make choices in balancing homeostasis with a finite amount of energy. Growth and reproduction are usually the first to go.” Place and his team will catch a sampling of several Antarctic fish species and place them in large holding tanks at McMurdo Station, the U.S. scientific base. Temperature and dissolved CO2 will be incrementally increased in the tanks, acclimating the fish to oceanic conditions that are projected for 2100. “The worst-case scenario calls for atmospheric CO2 levels of ~1,000 parts per million; current atmospheric levels are now about 380 ppm,” he said. “Under that same scenario, surface temperatures will likely increase by about 4o C.”

Place will then analyze how the fish respond to cellular stress brought on by the temperature/acidity changes. “If they’re devoting too much energy to dealing with the change, there will likely be long-term impacts on those species in the future.”

A closely related species to the ones Place will evaluate has high commercial value: the Antarctic toothfish, often sold under the moniker Chilean sea bass, which are commercially fished at the edge of the circumpolar current near Antarctica. Place's team hopes to be able to extrapolate the potential impacts to polpulations of these commercially important species.

After the three-month research expedition to Antarctica beginning in October, Place plans to go to New Zealand in 2013 to conduct similar experiments with more temperate fish species from the same family there.

(Image provided by USC.)

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