Idiosyncratic species effects confound size-based predictions of responses to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Understanding and predicting the consequences of warming for complex ecosystems and indeed individual species remains a major ecological challenge. Here, we investigated the effect of increased seawater temperatures on the metabolic and consumption rates of five distinct marine species. The experimental species reflected different trophic positions within a typical benthic East Atlantic food web, and included a herbivorous gastropod, a scavenging decapod, a predatory echinoderm, a decapod and a benthic-feeding fish. We examined the metabolism-body mass and consumption-body mass scaling for each species, and assessed changes in their consumption efficiencies. Our results indicate that body mass and temperature effects on metabolism were inconsistent across species and that some species were

SUBMITTER: Twomey M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3479753 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature