Integrating within-species variation in thermal physiology into climate change ecology.
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionMarine Science Program
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Date
2019-06-17Online Publication Date
2019-06-17Print Publication Date
2019-08-05Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/656409
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Show full item recordAbstract
Accurately forecasting the response of global biota to warming is a fundamental challenge for ecology in the Anthropocene. Within-species variation in thermal sensitivity, caused by phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation of thermal limits, is often overlooked in assessments of species responses to warming. Despite this, implicit assumptions of thermal niche conservatism or adaptation and plasticity at the species level permeate the literature with potentially important implications for predictions of warming impacts at the population level. Here we review how these attributes interact with the spatial and temporal context of ocean warming to influence the vulnerability of marine organisms. We identify a broad spectrum of thermal sensitivities among marine organisms, particularly in central and cool-edge populations of species distributions. These are characterized by generally low sensitivity in organisms with conserved thermal niches, to high sensitivity for organisms with locally adapted thermal niches. Important differences in thermal sensitivity among marine taxa suggest that warming could adversely affect benthic primary producers sooner than less vulnerable higher trophic groups. Embracing the spatial, temporal and biological context of within-species variation in thermal physiology helps explain observed impacts of ocean warming and can improve forecasts of climate change vulnerability in marine systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Physiological diversity, biodiversity patterns and global climate change: testing key hypotheses involving temperature and oxygen'.Citation
Bennett, S., Duarte, C. M., Marbà, N., & Wernberg, T. (2019). Integrating within-species variation in thermal physiology into climate change ecology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374(1778), 20180550. doi:10.1098/rstb.2018.0550Sponsors
S.B. received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 659246 and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Juan de la Cierva Formación (grant no. FJCI-2016-30728). S.B. and N.M. received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MedShift, CGL2015-71809-P) and Fundación BBVA (project Interbioclima).Publisher
The Royal SocietyAdditional Links
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2018.0550Relations
Is Supplemented By:- [Dataset]
Bennett, S., Duarte, C. M., Marbà, N., & Wernberg, T. (2019). Supplementary material from "Integrating within-species variation in thermal physiology into climate change ecology". Figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.C.4494479.V2. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4494479.v2 Handle: 10754/664748
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1098/rstb.2018.0550
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Archived with thanks to Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences