Brood-grooming behavior of American lobsters Homarus americanus in conditions of ocean warming and acidification

Abstract

The relationship between adverse environmental conditions and grooming behavior is an unresolved mechanism whereby a changing climate may impact reproductive success in animals that brood their eggs. Although important to embryo survival and development in decapod crustaceans, brood grooming by ovigerous females may be impacted by energetically demanding conditions associated with climate change, which may contribute to lethal and sublethal outcomes for brood health and survival. Despite its potential importance to reproduction, brood-grooming behavior has not been empirically described in the American lobster Homarus americanus H. Milne Edwards, 1837, a commercially important marine decapod. The relationship between brood-grooming behavior, temperature, and pH was explored at different points in the embryogenesis of American lobsters. For a period of 5 mo, egg-bearing females were exposed to different combinations of ecologically relevant conditions of temperature and pH, including those reflecting ocean warming (+4°C), ocean acidification (-0.5 pH), and the combination of warming and acidification. Fecundity, embryo development, and female grooming behavior were assessed at multiple time points. The proportion of time that lobsters spent fanning, but not probing, their broods increased with advancing embryo development. Neither egg loss, nor any measured brood-grooming behaviors, varied significantly with temperature or pH in this experiment. American lobster reproduction appears well suited to tolerate future conditions of ocean acidification and warming based on the ability to maintain stable brood grooming and brood mortality levels under a range of conditions.