Dataset: Morphological measurements of Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia) larvae reared under ambient or hypoxia/acidification treatments during cross-generational laboratory experiments in 2022

Study description:
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These data were generated during a cross-generational laboratory experiment testing how parental exposure to a combined hypoxia and acidification treatment affected offspring responses and HypOA tolerance in an important coastal forage fish species, Atlantic silverside Menidia menidia. The experiment was conducted during June and July 2022 at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Environmental Systems Laboratory.   Wild adult Atlantic silversides were conditioned to two treatment levels: control (100% dissolved oxygen [DO] / 650 µatm pCO2) or HypOA conditions (40% DO / 2300 µatm pCO2) for 10 days. After artificial fertilization, their offspring were reared in a factorial experimental design to test how parental conditioning to the stressors affected the survival, development, and growth of embryos and larvae when reared under control or HypOA conditions. The larvae were sampled for morphometric measurements at hatch (9 or 10 days post-fertilization) and after 10 days of larval rearing (19 days post-fertilization). We evaluated survival to hatch (fertilization to 10 days post-fertilization), during larval development (hatch to 10 days post hatch), and over the entire rearing interval (fertilization to 19 days post-fertilization). We found that direct offspring exposure to HypOA lowered survival and growth; however, embryos fertilized by HypOA conditioned parents showed better survival under HypOA conditions. By contrast, we found that larvae from HypOA-conditioned parents exhibited, on average, slower post-hatch growth and slightly lower larval survival in offspring groups reared under both treatment conditions. The data demonstrate that parental conditioning does affect offspring responses, with evidence for both positive and negative effects on offspring viability and tolerance to HypOA.