Download Preliminary Petition to List Pteropod Species Limacina helicina as

Preliminary Petition to List
Pteropod Species Limacina
helicina as Endangered Under
the ESA
Carol Bogezi ([email protected])
Wylie Hampson ([email protected])
Maddie Hicks ([email protected])
Sarra Tekola ([email protected])
University of Washington ESRM 458 Winter 2015
Professors Marc Miller and John Marzluff
Client
Nina Bednarsek
● NOAA Affiliate
● 18 Publications on Pteropods
and ocean acidification including
first author in Nature
● Cited 143 times
Limacina helicina
•Shells made up of
Aragonite
•1.5-2 year lifespan
•Hermaphroditic
•Spawning takes place
mostly in Summer and
Spring
Food Web
•Diet consists of particulate
organic matter,
phytoplankton, and small
motile organisms.
•Preyed upon by
gymnosomata pteropods and
fish such as salmon and
herring.
Distribution
● Polar/subpolar,
continental
shelves, high
productivity areas
● Biomass high at
poles, lowest at
equator
Definition of species by the ESA
•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.”
Threats
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)
Natural changes in habitat
● Ocean acidification
● Temperature increase
These cause the reduced ability to form shells
Reduced fitness increases predation on the weak
How ocean carbonate chemistry affects L.
helicina
Effect of Ocean Acidification
Anthropogenic threats to habitat
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
Comparing the L.heliciana biomass and 2011 carbonate
chemistry
Population Decline
Case 1: Vancouver Island
● Limacina helicina abundance decreased in 3
of 4 sites since 1979
● Combination of increase
in SST and changes in
ocean circulation have
stronger effect on decline
than ocean acidification
Population Decline
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
Decline in pH
recent (~1990) so
effects may not
be significant yet
Inadequacy of Existing Regulatory
Mechanisms
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
Conservation Methods
● 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
References
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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.