Project: OCE-PRF Detecting signatures of multigenerational plasticity in a marine forage fish

NSF Award Abstract:

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Coastal marine ecosystems face multiple anthropogenic stressors including increasingly severe events of co-occurring acidification and hypoxia. These periodic but acute environmental stressors can directly impact the abundance, diversity, and commercial value of coastal fish stocks. Rapid acclimation of key physiological processes can provide short-term protection against extreme conditions. Importantly, these phenotypic modifications can be passed on to subsequent generations thereby priming offspring for increased tolerance. However, for most fish species the scope for phenotypic plasticity and the precise mechanisms of action are poorly understood. This severely limits our ability to anticipate responses in the majority of ecologically and economically important marine species. The overarching objective of this proposal is to investigate the potential for within-generational and multigenerational plasticity in response to co-occurring hypoxia and acidification in the forage fish Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia). The Atlantic silverside is a foundational species and an essential trophic component of coastal food webs along the North American Atlantic coast and serves as key prey item for many seabirds and commercially important fish. Understanding the long-term bioenergetic impacts and the potential for rapid adaptation in this species will therefore fundamentally advance our understanding of the ecological consequences of rapid environmental change in coastal marine ecosystems.

The project will be centered around a series of laboratory exposure experiments and state-of-the-art metabolic assays utilizing wild-caught Atlantic silversides collected during their spring spawning season. The PI will investigate how parental environments influence offspring phenotype by conditioning mature wild Atlantic silversides (F0) to contrasting fluctuating CO2/O2 treatments. The F1 generation will be then reared in a reciprocal transplant experiment to quantify how parental and offspring treatment levels affect key life-history traits including survival, growth, and aerobic performance. Surviving F1 offspring will be reared until maturity to evaluate how environmental stress experienced during early development affects adult reproductive capacity. Furthermore, the PI will investigate the role of biological memory in multigenerational plasticity by exposing F2 offspring to factorial combinations of grandparental and parental environments. In parallel, the PI will investigate how molecular mechanisms may mediate rapid adaptation to changing environments using transcriptomics (RNAseq) and genome-wide DNA methylation profiling (Methylseq). Linking molecular changes with whole organism phenotypic responses will broaden our understanding of the effects of multiple stressors on an ecologically important species which will provide clues for developing mitigation plans to protect coastal food webs from various climatic factors.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.