Reduced Respiration Rates in the Periwinkle Littorina littorea

This article talks about how exposure to elevated temperatures and Pco(2) (partial pressure of carbon dioxide; is a blood gas test that checks for the amount of carbon dioxide gas that is in the blood) reduces the respiration rate and energy status in the periwinkle Littorina littorea. Scientists investigated the effects of elevated Pco(2) and temperature on the whole-organism and cellular physiology of the periwinkle Littorina littorea.
 

 This is a picture of  the periwinkle Littorina littorea

They chose to study this organism because in the future marine organisms will have to cope with multiple environmental changes associated with increased levels of atmospheric Pco(2), such as ocean warming and acidification. They wanted to find out how organisms will adapt to these changes and if they will survive. To understand this they would need an in-depth understanding of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms that are the basis of  organismal responses to climate change. Respiration rates, adenylate energy nucleotide concentrations and indexes, and end-product metabolite concentrations were measured. The final results were compared to the controls'. We saw that the snails decreased their respiration rate by 31% in response to elevated Pco(2) and by 15% in response to a combination of increased Pco(2) and temperature. We saw that the decreased respiration rates were associated with metabolic reduction and there was an increase in end-product metabolites in acidified treatments, indicating an increased reliance on anaerobic metabolism. They concluded that marine organisms will probably adapt in complex ways to future environmental drivers, which will likely have negative effects on growth, population dynamics, and, ultimately, ecosystem processes.