Cumulative stress restricts niche filling potential of habitat-forming kelps in a future climate.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is driving range contractions and local population extinctions across the globe. When this affects ecosystem engineers the vacant niches left behind are likely to alter the wider ecosystem unless a similar species can fulfil them.Here, we explore the stress physiology of two coexisting kelps undergoing opposing range shifts in the Northeast Atlantic and discuss what differences in stress physiology may mean for future niche filling.We used chlorophyll florescence (F_v/F_m) and differentiation of the heat shock response (HSR) to determine the capacity of the expanding kelp, Laminaria ochroleuca, to move into the higher shore position of the retreating kelp, Laminaria digitata. We applied both single and consecutive exposures to

SUBMITTER: King NG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5856065 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature