The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, shows negative correlation to naturally elevated carbon dioxide levels: Implications for near-term ocean acidification effects

This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc. and can be found at: http://www.aslo.org/lo/. To the best of our knowledge, one or more authors of this paper were federal employees when contributing to this work.We report results from an oyster hatchery on the Oregon coast, where intake waters experienced variable carbonate chemistry (aragonite saturation state < 0.8 to > 3.2; pH < 7.6 to > 8.2) in the early summer of 2009. Both larval production and midstage growth (∼ 120 to ∼ 150 µm) of the oyster Crassostrea gigas were significantly negatively correlated with the aragonite saturation state of waters in which larval oysters were spawned and reared for the first 48 h of life. The effects of the initial spawning conditions did not have a significant effect on early-stage growth (growth from D-hinge stage to ∼ 120 µm), suggesting a delayed effect of water chemistry on larval development