2 November 2021. We are happy report that the ICES Journal of Marine Science just published the last major experimental paper on Atlantic silverside CO2-sensitivity. We report on two complementary, long-term rearing trials in 2015/16 and 2018/19, where silverside juvenile or newly fertilized embryos were reared under contrasting temperature and CO2 conditions to maturity. The paper demonstrated that negative effects of high CO2 conditions on female fecundity occurred, but only at the warm, not the cold temperature treatments (Fig. below). Our study and its data are novel, because it constitutes the first whole-life rearing experiment on a fish, and the first test for fecundity effects in a broadcast-spawning fish species.

The paper is also special to us, because its publication marks the erstwhile conclusion of our yearlong, NSF-funded efforts (OCE#1536165) to understand the CO2 sensitivity and its mechanisms in this important forage fish and long-standing model in fish ecology and evolution. The project ran from 2015 – 2020, produced 15 publications, 2 book chapters, and over 40 presentations, while furthering the careers of a post-doc, a PhD student, 5 Master students and over 10 undergraduates.

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