Climate-related environmental stress in intertidal grazers: scaling-up biochemical responses to assemblage-level processes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Organisms are facing increasing levels of environmental stress under climate change that may severely affect the functioning of biological systems at different levels of organization. Growing evidence suggests that reduction in body size is a universal response of organisms to global warming. However, a clear understanding of whether extreme climate events will impose selection directly on phenotypic plastic responses and how these responses affect ecological interactions has remained elusive.

Methods

We experimentally investigated the effects of extreme desiccation events on antioxidant defense mechanisms of a rocky intertidal gastropod (Patella ulyssiponensis), and evaluated how these effects scaled-up at the population and assemblage levels.

Results</

SUBMITTER: Maggi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5075701 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature