Warming increases the top-down effects and metabolism of a subtidal herbivore.

ABSTRACT: Ecological theory and experiments indicate that warming can increase the relative strength of top-down effects via alterations to metabolic rates in several different systems, thereby resulting in decreased plant biomass at higher temperatures. However, the general influence of increased environmental temperature on top-down effects is not well understood in systems where organisms experience relatively large variation in temperature. Rapid ocean temperature changes are pervasive throughout the Galápagos Islands due to upwelling and downwelling of internal waves, ENSO events and seasonality. We measured the effect of large, but not uncommon, water temperature variation on the metabolism and grazing rate of a common subtidal herbivore and on photosynthesis of their algal prey in the Galápag

SUBMITTER: Carr LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3728763 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature