Interactive effects of multiple stressors in coastal ecosystems
Coastal ecosystems are increasingly experiencing anthropogenic pressures such as climate heating, CO2 increase, metal and organic pollution, overfishing and resource extraction. Some resulting stressors are more direct like fisheries, others more indirect like ocean acidification, yet they jointly affect marine biota, communities and entire ecosystems. While single-stressor effects have been widely investigated, the interactive effects of multiple stressors on ecosystems are less researched. In this study, we review the literature on multiple stressors and their interactive effects in coastal environments across organisms. We classify the interactions into three categories: synergistic, additive, and antagonistic. We found phytoplankton and mollusks to be the most studied taxonomic groups. The stressor combinations of climate warming, ocean acidification, eutrophication, and metal pollution are the most critical for coastal ecosystems as they exacerbate adverse effects on physiological traits such as growth rate, basal respiration, and size. Phytoplankton appears to be most sensitive to interactions between metal and nutrient pollution. In nutrient-enriched environments, the presence of metals considerably affects the uptake of nutrients, and increases respiration costs and toxin production in phytoplankton. For mollusks, warming and low pH are the most lethal stressors. The combined effect of heat stress and ocean acidification leads to decreased growth rate, shell size, and acid-base regulation capacity in mollusks. However, for a holistic understanding of how coastal food webs will evolve with ongoing changes, we suggest more research on ecosystem-level responses. This can be achieved by combining in-situ observations from controlled environments (e.g. mesocosm experiments) with modelling approaches.
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