Summary
Ocean acidification has been identified as a significant feature of climate change influencing the world’s marine biota. As ocean pH decreases, an increase in temperature is also expected. There have been limited experiments investigating the interaction of these two stressors in the highly susceptible Antarctic environment. We examined development, mortality, larval size and larval dimensions over a number of experiments in both a static and a flow-through aquaria system. Larvae were sampled at three developmental stages, gastrula, prism and pluteus .Three temperature treatments (1°C, 3°C and 5°C) and three pH treatments (pH 8, pH 7.8 and pH 7.6) were used for the static system. Larvae in the flow through experiments were maintained at the same pH treatments as the static system however the temperature treatments used were -1°C and 1°C., . Results suggest that S. neumayeri larvae cannot develop past gastrula in 5°C water. Sub-lethal effects of both warming and acidification included variation in larval size with respect to arm length. Comparison of results between these two experimental systems will help the development of more effective protocols in acidification research. These results may lead to a greater understanding of the impact climate change will have on the ecology of S. neumayeri.