Seth F Cones, Youenn Jézéquel, Sierra Jarriel, Nadège Aoki, Hannah Brewer, John Collins, Laurent Chauvaud, T Aran Mooney
{"title":"Offshore windfarm construction elevates metabolic rate and increases predation vulnerability of a key marine invertebrate.","authors":"Seth F Cones, Youenn Jézéquel, Sierra Jarriel, Nadège Aoki, Hannah Brewer, John Collins, Laurent Chauvaud, T Aran Mooney","doi":"10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124709","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A global increase in offshore windfarm development is critical to our renewable energy future. Yet, widespread construction plans have generated substantial concern for impacts to co-occurring organisms and the communities they form. Pile driving construction, prominent in offshore windfarm development, produces among the highest amplitude sounds in the ocean creating widespread concern for a diverse array of taxa. However, studies addressing ecologically key species are generally lacking and most research is disparate, failing to integrate across response types (e.g., behavior, physiology, and ecological interactions), particularly in situ. The lack of integrative field studies presents major challenges to understand or mitigate actual impacts of offshore wind development. Here, we examined critical behavioral, physiological, and antipredator impacts of actual pile driving construction on the giant sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus). Benthic taxa including bivalves are of particular concern because they are sound-sensitive, cannot move appreciable distances away from the stressor, and support livelihoods as one of the world's most economically and socially important fisheries. Overall, pile driving sound impacted scallops across a series of behavioral and physiological assays. Sound-exposed scallops consistently reduced their valve opening (22%), resulting in lowered mantle water oxygen levels available to the gills. Repeated and rapid valve adductions led to a 56% increase in metabolic rates relative to pre-exposure baselines. Consequently, in response to predator stimuli, sound-exposed scallops displayed a suite of significantly weaker antipredator behaviors including fewer swimming events and shorter time-to-exhaustion. These results show aquatic construction activities can induce metabolic and ecologically relevant changes in a key benthic animal. As offshore windfarm construction accelerates globally, our field-based study highlights that spatial overlap with benthic taxa may cause substantial metabolic changes, alter important fisheries resources, and ultimately could lead to increased predation.</p>","PeriodicalId":311,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Pollution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Pollution","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124709","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A global increase in offshore windfarm development is critical to our renewable energy future. Yet, widespread construction plans have generated substantial concern for impacts to co-occurring organisms and the communities they form. Pile driving construction, prominent in offshore windfarm development, produces among the highest amplitude sounds in the ocean creating widespread concern for a diverse array of taxa. However, studies addressing ecologically key species are generally lacking and most research is disparate, failing to integrate across response types (e.g., behavior, physiology, and ecological interactions), particularly in situ. The lack of integrative field studies presents major challenges to understand or mitigate actual impacts of offshore wind development. Here, we examined critical behavioral, physiological, and antipredator impacts of actual pile driving construction on the giant sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus). Benthic taxa including bivalves are of particular concern because they are sound-sensitive, cannot move appreciable distances away from the stressor, and support livelihoods as one of the world's most economically and socially important fisheries. Overall, pile driving sound impacted scallops across a series of behavioral and physiological assays. Sound-exposed scallops consistently reduced their valve opening (22%), resulting in lowered mantle water oxygen levels available to the gills. Repeated and rapid valve adductions led to a 56% increase in metabolic rates relative to pre-exposure baselines. Consequently, in response to predator stimuli, sound-exposed scallops displayed a suite of significantly weaker antipredator behaviors including fewer swimming events and shorter time-to-exhaustion. These results show aquatic construction activities can induce metabolic and ecologically relevant changes in a key benthic animal. As offshore windfarm construction accelerates globally, our field-based study highlights that spatial overlap with benthic taxa may cause substantial metabolic changes, alter important fisheries resources, and ultimately could lead to increased predation.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Pollution is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality research papers and review articles covering all aspects of environmental pollution and its impacts on ecosystems and human health.
Subject areas include, but are not limited to:
• Sources and occurrences of pollutants that are clearly defined and measured in environmental compartments, food and food-related items, and human bodies;
• Interlinks between contaminant exposure and biological, ecological, and human health effects, including those of climate change;
• Contaminants of emerging concerns (including but not limited to antibiotic resistant microorganisms or genes, microplastics/nanoplastics, electronic wastes, light, and noise) and/or their biological, ecological, or human health effects;
• Laboratory and field studies on the remediation/mitigation of environmental pollution via new techniques and with clear links to biological, ecological, or human health effects;
• Modeling of pollution processes, patterns, or trends that is of clear environmental and/or human health interest;
• New techniques that measure and examine environmental occurrences, transport, behavior, and effects of pollutants within the environment or the laboratory, provided that they can be clearly used to address problems within regional or global environmental compartments.