Local-scale thermal history influences metabolic response of marine invertebrates to warming

Abstract

As climate change continues, anticipating species' responses to rising temperatures, requires an understanding of the relationship between metabolic rate and thermal sensitivity, which itself may vary over space and time. We measured metabolic rates of three representative marine invertebrate species (hermit crabs Pagurus hirsutiusculus, periwinkle snails Littorina sitkana, and mussels Mytilus trossulus) and evaluated the relationship between thermal sensitivity (Q 10 ) and thermal history. We tested the hypothesis that thermal history drives thermal sensitivity and quanti ed how this relationship differs over time (short-term to seasonal time scales) and between species. Organisms were collected from tide pools in Sitka, Alaska where we also recorded temperatures to characterize thermal history prior to metabolic rate assays. Using respirometry, we estimated mass-speci c oxygen consumption (MO 2 ) at ambient and increased temperatures for one individual per species per tide pool across three seasons. We evaluated relationships between thermal sensitivity and pool temperatures for time periods ranging from 1 day to 3 months prior to collection. For all species, thermal sensitivity was related to thermal history for the shorter time periods (1 day to 1 week). However, the direction of the relationships and most important thermal parameters (i.e., maximum, mean, or range) differed between species and seasons. We found that on average, P. hirsutiusculus and L. sitkana were more thermally sensitive than M. trossulus. These ndings show that variability in thermal history over small spatial scales in uences individuals' metabolic response to warming and may be indicative of these species' ability to acclimate to future climate change.

Quantifying co‐extinctions and ecosystem service vulnerability in coastal ecosystems experiencing climate warming

“…These factors include species' traits such as thermal maxima, mobility, metabolism, body size, as well as their ability to acclimate (Chichorro et al, 2019;Harvey et al, 2022;Mérillet et al, 2022). For example, more mobile species will be more able to seek thermal refuge from extreme temperatures, decreasing their risk of extinction compared to sessile species (Rangel & Sorte, 2022;Sunday et al, 2014).…”

“…These factors include species' traits such as thermal maxima, mobility, metabolism, body size, as well as their ability to acclimate (Chichorro et al., 2019; Harvey et al., 2022; Mérillet et al., 2022). For example, more mobile species will be more able to seek thermal refuge from extreme temperatures, decreasing their risk of extinction compared to sessile species (Rangel & Sorte, 2022; Sunday et al., 2014). Similarly, ectotherms are much more vulnerable to changing temperatures than endotherms due to the external regulation of their body temperature, and as temperatures increase, ectotherms are predicted to experience higher amounts of heat stress, which can lead to death (Jørgensen et al., 2022).…”