Study title

The available information concerning the combined effects of climate change and pollution on marine life is scarce. This study conducted a series of laboratory experiments to generate such information. Two relevant anthropogenic stress factors related to climate change were tested; ocean pollution and increased temperatures. Stress relating to pollution was tested by means of two by-products of offshore production of oil and gas; drilling mud and oil. Oil was tested in a concentration consistent with that present some distance from an oil spill. Mud was tested using suspended waterborne particles, which is consistent with levels some distance from where mud has been released. The responses of various animals exposed to one or more of these stress factors have been studied. The primary objective of the project was to study effects of ocean acidification (OA) in combination with other types of anthropogenic stress on fitness and physiology of adults and early life stages of key organisms in the marine ecosystem. The study combined effects of OA, increased ocean temperature and oil on the adult and early life stages of shrimps in long term experiments. In addition, the study looked at the effects of OA and increased ocean temperature on the early life stages of krill, the combined effects of OA and oil on early life stages of sea urchins, and the combined effects of OA and drilling mud on cold water corals. The data consists of five experiments: Experiment 1 - 4 were part of Maj Arnberg's PhD thesis, in addition to experiment 5, data from experiments with corals.