Preliminary Petition to List Pteropod Species Limacina helicina as Endangered Under the ESACarol Bogezi (cbogezi@uw.edu)Wylie Hampson (whampson@uw.edu)Maddie Hicks (mhicks12@uw.edu)Sarra Tekola (stekola@uw.edu)

University of Washington ESRM 458 Winter 2015

Professors Marc Miller and John Marzluff

Nina Bednarsek

● NOAA Affiliate● 18 Publications on Pteropods

and ocean acidification including first author in Nature● Cited 143 times

Client

•Shells made up of Aragonite

•1.5-2 year lifespan

•Hermaphroditic

•Spawning takes place mostly in Summer and Spring

Limacina helicina

•Diet consists of particulate organic matter, phytoplankton, and small motile organisms.

•Preyed upon by gymnosomata pteropods and fish such as salmon and herring.

Food Web

● Polar/subpolar, continental shelves, high productivity areas

● Biomass high at poles, lowest at equator

Distribution

•Limacina helicina would be considered a species under the Endangered Species Act.

•Section 3(16)- “The term “species” includes any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.”

•Section 3(8)- “The term “fish or wildlife” means any member of the animal kingdom, including without limitation any mammal, fish, bird (including any migratory, nonmigratory, or endangered bird for which protection is also afforded by treaty or other international agreement), amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod or other invertebrate, and includes any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof.”

Definition of species by the ESA

Thecosomes - shell-forming pteropods are threatened by the natural and man-made changes in their habitat

● physiological disruptions in shell-formation

● reduced biomass

● reduced reproductive fitness

● reduced habitat range (limited diel movements)

Threats

● Ocean acidification

● Temperature increase

These cause the reduced ability to form shells

Reduced fitness increases predation on the weak

Natural changes in habitat

How ocean carbonate chemistry affects L. helicina

Effect of Ocean Acidification

Pollution● caused hypoxia in the L.helicana habitable zones

● Pacific Ocean has a shorter habitable zone (700m)

● hypoxia limits L.helicana’s diel movements

● Reduced diel movements results in increased predation

Anthropogenic threats to habitat

Comparing the L.heliciana biomass and 2011 carbonate chemistry

Case 1: Vancouver Island● Limacina helicina abundance

decreased in 3 of 4 sites since 1979

Population Decline

● Combination of increase in SST and changes in ocean circulation have stronger effect on decline than ocean acidification

Case 2: North Sea● Decline between 1958 and 2010● Pteropod abundance does not correlate with changes in pH● Mortality caused by combination of changes in

temperature, nutrient concentrations, predation, ocean acidification

Population Decline

Decline in pH recent (~1990) so effects may not be significant yet

After 20 United Nations yearly Climate Change Conferences no substantial climate policy put forth

China and USA negotiated deals that leaves our planet at 3.8 degrees of warming

Obama’s Clean Air Act only regulates ⅓ of emissions

Inadequacy of Existing Regulatory Mechanisms

● Clean Water Act has the ability to regulate pH but is currently not

● Coastal areas should have Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of carbon, nitrogen,sulfur and other limits on all of the outputs into the oceans including rivers

● Critical habitat needs to be preserved through Marine Protection Areas, by regulating the local pollution and emissions around it

Conservation Methods

● Beare, D., McQuatters-Gollop, A., van der Hammen, T., Machiels, M., Teoh, S. J. and Hall-Spencer, J. M. (2013). Long-Term Trends in Calcifying Plankton and pH in the North Sea. PLos ONE 8: e61175.

● Beaugrand, G., McQuatters-Gollop, A., Edwards, M. and Goberville, E. (2013). Long-term responses of North Atlantic calcifying plankton to climate change. Nature Climate Change 3: 263-267.

● Bednarsek, N., Feely R. A., Reum, J. C. P., Peterson, B., Menkel, J., Alin. S. R. and Hales, B. (2014). Limacina helicina shell dissolution as an indicator of declining habitat suitability owing to ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281: 20140123.

● Bednarsek, N., Mozina, J., Vogt, M., O’Brien, C. and Tarling, G. A. (2012). The global distribution of pteropods and their contribution to carbonate and carbon biomass in the modern ocean. Earth System Science Data 1: 1-20.

● Brodeur R, Pearcy W. “Trophic Relations of Juvenile Pacific Salmon Off the Oregon and Washington Coast”. Fishery Bulletin. May 29, 1990.

● Brodeur R. “A Synthesis of the Food Habits and Feeding Ecology of Salmonids in Marine Waters of the North Pacific”. Fisheries Research Institute. October 1990.

● Endangered Species Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-205, Approved Dec. 28, 1973, 87 Stat. 884. ● Gruber N, Hauri C, Lachkar Z, Loher D, Frölicher T, Plattner G. “Rapid Progression of Ocean Acidification in the California Current

System.” Sciencemag.org. June 14, 2012.● Hunt B, Strugnell J, Bednarsek N, Linse K, Nelson R, Pakhomov E, Seibel B, Steinke D, Wurzberg L. “Poles Apart: The “Bipolar”

Pteropod Species Limacina Helicina Is Genetically Distinct Between the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans”. PLoS One. March 23, 2010.● Kobayashi H.A. “Growth cycle and related vertical distribution of the thecosomatous pteropod Spiratella (?Limacina?) helicina in the

central Arctic Ocean” Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California. April 24, 1974.● Mackas, D. L. and Galbraith, M. D. (2012). Pteropod time-series from the NE Pacific. ICES Journal of Marine Science 69: 448-459.

References