Exploring the role of temperature in the ocean through metabolic scaling

Abstract

Abstract. Temperature imposes a constraint on the rates and outcomes of ecological processes that determine community-and ecosystem-level patterns. The application of metabolic scaling theory has advanced our understanding of the influence of temperature on pattern and process in marine communities. Metabolic scaling theory uses the fundamental and ubiquitous patterns of temperature-dependent metabolism to predict how environmental temperature influences patterns and processes at higher levels of biological organization. Here, we outline some of these predictions to review recent advances and illustrate how scaling theory might be applied to new challenges. For example, warming can alter species interactions and food-web structure and can also reduce total animal biomass supportable by a given amount of primary production by increasing animal metabolism and energetic demand. Additionally, within a species, larval development is faster in warmer water, potentially influencing dispersal and other demographic processes like population connectivity and gene flow. These predictions can be extended further to address major questions in marine ecology, and present an opportunity for conceptual unification of marine ecological research across levels of biological organization. Drawing on work by ecologists and oceanographers over the last century, a metabolic scaling approach represents a promising way forward for applying ecological understanding to basic questions as well as conservation challenges.

Size-dependent physiological responses of the branching coralPocillopora verrucosato elevated temperature andPCO2

“…The functional relationships between organism size and biological processes, and the extent to which they are modulated by temperature, therefore are of central importance in elucidating the causes of spatio-temporal variation in ecological processes (Nisbet et al, 2000;Brown et al, 2004). While these principles are gaining recognition for their potential to advance understanding of the response of populations to global climate change and ocean acidification (Gaylord et al, 2015;Bruno et al, 2015), the potential remains largely unrealized in colonial modular animals, and corals in particular .…”

Fishing degrades size structure of coral reef fish communities

“…Although human covariates were the strongest predictors of size spectra, additional variation was attributed to differences in sea surface temperature. Metabolic principles predict that, in warmer environments, increases in individual energy demands drive greater per‐capita consumption rates and strengthen top‐down control of prey populations (Bruno et al ., ; DeLong et al ., ). Therefore, in agreement with our results, warmer islands should be characterized by shallower size spectra (lower abundance of small‐bodied fish relative to large‐bodied fish).…”

Copepod dynamics across warm and cold periods in the eastern Bering Sea: Implications for walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) and the Oscillating Control Hypothesis

“…Reduction in organism body size as ecosystems warm has been hypothesized to be a universal response to global warming (Gardner, Peters, Kearney, Joseph, & Heinsohn, 2011) and has been linked to dramatic changes in food webs in mesocosm studies (Peter & Sommer, 2012;Yvon-Durocher et al, 2015). As higher latitude systems continue to warm, the interplay between organism traits influenced by temperature, such as size (Forster, Hirst, & Atkinson, 2012) and metabolism (Bruno, Carr, & O'Connor, 2015), will have profound effects on ecosystem structure and function and warrant investigation.…”