Acute hypoxic exposure affects gamete quality and subsequent fertilization success and embryonic development in a serpulid polychaete.

Hypoxia likely compromises the reproductive success of those marine organisms carrying out external fertilization because their gametes and embryos are inevitably exposed to the external environment. Hydroides elegans, a dominant serpulid polychaete in Hong Kong waters, can spawn throughout the year but the number of recruits drops during summer when hypoxia commonly occurs. This study attempted to explain such observation by investigating the gamete quality, including sperm motility, egg size, complexity and viability, after 1-h hypoxic exposure (1 mg O2 l(-1)). In addition, how gamete quality affects fertilization success and embryonic development was examined. After 1-h hypoxic exposure, sperm motility was significantly reduced, compromising fertilization success. Although the eggs remained viable, more malformed embryos and retarded embryonic development were observed. We interpreted that the harmful effect of hypoxia on embryonic development was attributed to the teratogenicity and induced oxidative stress, ultimately causing the reduction in recruitment during summer.

Effects of hypoxia on biofilms and subsequently larval settlement of benthic invertebrates.

Biofilms on submerged surfaces are important in determining larval settlement of most marine benthic invertebrates. We investigated if exposure of biofilms to hypoxia would alter the larval settlement pattern and result in a shift in benthic invertebrate community structure in the field. Biofilms were first exposed to hypoxia or normoxia in laboratory microcosms for 7 days, and then deployed in the field for another 7 days to allow for larval settlement and recruitment to occur. Using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the 16S rRNA gene, this study showed that hypoxia altered the biofilm bacterial community composition, and the difference between the hypoxic and normoxic treatments increased with the time of exposure period. This study also demonstrated significantly different benthic invertebrate community structures as a result of biofilm exposure to hypoxia and that the hypoxic and normoxic treatments were dominated by Hydroides sp. and Folliculina sp., respectively.

Effect of parental hypoxic exposure on embryonic development of the offspring of two serpulid polychaetes: Implication for transgenerational epigenetic effect.

Sperm production and motility, fecundity, and egg size, complexity and viability of serpulid polychaetes Hydroides elegans and Hydroides diramphus after 2-week treatment to hypoxia (2 mg O2 l(-1)) was compared with those under normoxia (6 mg O2 l(-1)). Despite reduced fecundity, the effect of parental hypoxic exposure on gamete quality was not discernible for both species. However, regardless of their subsequent dissolved oxygen environment, eggs spawned by H. elegans after hypoxic exposure were found to have lower fertilization success, slower embryonic development and a significantly higher yield of malformed embryos than those with a parental normoxic treatment. In contrast, neither fertilization success nor rate of embryonic development was affected for H. diramphus. The results implied that hypoxia was a potential stress reducing the recruitment of H. elegans through non-adaptive epigenetic effect, whereas H. diramphus was a more tolerant species to survive hypoxic events.

Hypoxia induces abnormal larval development and affects biofilm-larval interaction in the serpulid polychaete Hydroides elegans.

Hydroides elegans, a worldwide fouling polychaete, can spawn throughout the year, but its recruitment drops during summer when hypoxia prevails. Here, the influence of hypoxia on larval development and settlement of H. elegans was investigated. Results showed that larval development was compromised at 1mg O2 l(-1) with a lower proportion of competent larvae and a higher proportion of malformed larvae, probably due to reduction in clearance rate. Regarding larval settlement, although most of the larvae were reluctant to settle at 1mg O2 l(-1), regardless of the biofilm nature, they settled quickly within 24h in response to the resumption of dissolved oxygen. Furthermore, only about 5% of the larvae settled on the biofilms developed under hypoxia, regardless of dissolved oxygen levels of the seawater. The delayed larval development and potential alteration of biofilm nature owing to hypoxia explained why the recruitment of H. elegans declines during summer.