A Waterborne Pursuit-Deterrent Signal Deployed by a Sea Urchin.

Selection by consumers has led to the evolution of a vast array of defenses in animals and plants. These defenses include physical structures, behaviors, and chemical signals that mediate interactions with predators. Some of the strangest defensive structures in nature are the globiferous pedicellariae of the echinoderms.

Direct and indirect effects of ocean acidification and warming on a marine plant-herbivore interaction.

The impacts of climatic change on organisms depend on the interaction of multiple stressors and how these may affect the interactions among species. Consumer-prey relationships may be altered by changes to the abundance of either species, or by changes to the per capita interaction strength among species. To examine the effects of multiple stressors on a species interaction, we test the direct, interactive effects of ocean warming and lowered pH on an abundant marine herbivore (the amphipod Peramphithoe parmerong), and whether this herbivore is affected indirectly by these stressors altering the palatability of its algal food (Sargassum linearifolium).

Impact of ocean warming and ocean acidification on larval development and calcification in the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla.

Background: As the oceans simultaneously warm, acidify and increase in P(CO2), prospects for marine biota are of concern. Calcifying species may find it difficult to produce their skeleton because ocean acidification decreases calcium carbonate saturation and accompanying hypercapnia suppresses metabolism. However, this may be buffered by enhanced growth and metabolism due to warming.