Research Project
Researchers: Dr Symon Dworjanyn (Owned by)
Full description
New South Wales is a climate change hotspot where the ocean is warming three times the global average and becoming more acidic due to increased CO2. The region’s marine resources and associated industries are vulnerable to climate change if species are unable to adapt. Multigenerational experiments with key marine invertebrates reared in near future projected ocean change conditions will determine the potential for adaptation to climate change stressors over successive generations. The outcomes will inform resource managers, industry and the community as they plan, prepare for and work to minimise the impacts of climate change on our marine resources.
This project was developed to fill knowledge gaps that hinder robust prediction about the effects of climate change on NSW’s marine fauna. We address a serious paucity of knowledge on the interactive effects of ocean acidification and warming across entire life histories of ecologically important marine animals and, most importantly, the potential for adaptation to ocean change over multiple generations. Our multidisciplinary team (NMSC, USyd, UNSW, DECCW) has extensive experience in climate change impacts on marine invertebrates, the ecology and evolution of focal taxa (sea urchins, crustaceans) and assessment of adaptive potential in the face of ocean change and other anthropogenic stressors. The infrastructure for manipulation of temperature and pH is in place in an established automatic CO2 injection flow through seawater facility at the NMSC.