Response of foundation macrophytes to near‐natural simulated marine heatwaves

Marine heatwaves have been observed worldwide and are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity due to climate change. Such events may cause ecosystem reconfigurations arising from species range contraction or redistribution, with ecological, economic and social implications. Macrophytes such as the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus and the seagrass Zostera marina are foundation species in many coastal ecosystems of the temperate northern hemisphere. Hence, their response to extreme events can potentially determine the fate of associated ecosystems. Macrophyte functioning is intimately linked to the maintenance of photosynthesis, growth and reproduction, and resistance against pathogens, epibionts and grazers. We investigated morphological, physiological, pathological and chemical defence responses of western Baltic Sea F. vesiculosus and Z. marina populations to simulated near‐natural marine heatwaves. Along with (a) the control, which constituted no heatwave but natural stochastic temperature variability (0HW), two treatments were applied: (b) two late‐spring heatwaves (June, July) followed by a summer heatwave (August; 3HW) and (c) a summer heatwave only (1HW). The 3HW treatment was applied to test whether preconditioning events can modulate the potential sensitivity to the summer heatwave. Despite the variety of responses measured in both species, only Z. marina growth was impaired by the accumulative heat stress imposed by the 3HW treatment. Photosynthetic rate, however, remained high after the last heatwave indicating potential for recovery. Only epibacterial abundance was significantly affected in F. vesiculosus. Hence both macrophytes, and in particular F. vesiculosus, seem to be fairly tolerant to short‐term marine heatwaves at least at the intensities applied in this experiment (up to 5°C above mean temperature over a period of 9 days). This may partly be due to the fact that F. vesiculosus grows in a highly variable environment, and may have a high phenotypic plasticity

Effects of temperature on carbon circulation in macroalgal food webs are mediated by herbivores

Warming is one of the most dramatic aspects of climate change and threatens future ecosystem functioning. It may alter primary productivity and thus jeopardize carbon sequestration, a crucial ecosystem service provided by coastal environments. Fucus vesiculosus is an important canopy-forming macroalga in the Baltic Sea, and its main consumer is Idotea balthica. The objective of this study is to understand how temperature impacts a simplified food web composed of macroalgae and herbivores to quantify the effect on organic carbon storage. The organisms were exposed to a temperature gradient from 5 to 25 °C. We measured and modeled primary production, respiration, growth and epiphytic load on the surface of Fucus and respiration, growth and egestion of Idotea. The results show that temperature affects physiological responses of Fucus and Idotea separately. However, Idotea proved more sensitive to increasing temperatures than the primary producers. The lag between the collapse of the grazer and the decline of Fucus and epiphytes above 20 °C allows an increase of carbon storage of the primary productivity at higher temperatures. Therefore, along the temperature gradient, the simplified food web stores carbon in a non-monotonic way (reaching minimum at 20 °C). Our work stresses the need of considering the combined metabolic performance of all organisms for sound predictions on carbon circulation in food webs

Surtos de vírus Vaccinia-like nos Estados de São Paulo e Goiás, Brasil: detecção, isolamento e identificação viral

Since October 2001, the Adolfo Lutz Institute has been receiving vesicular fluids and scab specimens of patients from Paraíba Valley region in the São Paulo and Minas Gerais States and from São Patricio Valley, in the Goiás State. Epidemiological data suggested that the outbreaks were caused by Cowpox virus or Vaccinia virus. Most of the patients are dairy milkers that had vesiculo-pustular lesions on the hands, arms, forearms, and some of them, on the face. Virus particles with orthopoxvirus morphology were detected by direct electron microscopy (DEM) in samples of 49 (66.21%) patients of a total of 74 analyzed. Viruses were isolated in Vero cell culture and on chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of embryonated chicken eggs. Among 21 samples submitted to PCR using primers for hemagglutinin (HA) gene, 19 were positive. Restriction digestion with TaqI resulted in four characteristic Vaccinia virus fragments. HA nucleotide sequences showed 99.9% similarity with Cantagalo virus, described as a strain of Vaccinia virus. The only difference observed was the substitution of one nucleotide in the position 616 leading to change in one amino acid of the protein in the position 206. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates clustered together with Cantagalo virus, other Vaccinia strains and Rabbitpox virus.A partir de outubro de 2001, o Instituto Adolfo Lutz tem recebido amostras de líquido vesicular e crostas de lesões de pele de pacientes das regiões do Vale do Paraíba, Estado de São Paulo e do Vale do São Patricio, Estado de Goiás. Os dados clínicos e epidemiológicos sugeriam que os surtos poderiam ser causados por Cowpox virus ou Vaccinia virus. A maioria dos pacientes era ordenhadores que tinham lesões vesicopustulares nas mãos, braços, antebraços e alguns na face. A análise por microscopia eletrônica direta (MED) detectou partículas com morfologia de vírus do gênero Orthopoxvirus em amostras de 49 (66,21%) pacientes dos 74 analisados. Os vírus foram isolados em membrana corioalantóide (MCA) de ovo embrionado de galinha e em linhagem celular Vero com confirmação por MED e PCR. Das 21 amostras de lesões submetidas ao PCR utilizando iniciadores para o gene da hemaglutinina (HA), 19 foram positivas. A digestão por enzima de restrição TaqI resultou em quatro fragmentos característicos de Vaccinia virus. A análise nucleotídica do seqüenciamento revelou que esses vírus apresentam 99,9% de similaridade com o Cantagalo virus, descrito como uma cepa de Vaccinia virus, havendo apenas alteração de um nucleotídeo na posição 616 com mudança de um aminoácido na proteína na posição 206. A análise filogenética mostrou que os isolados se agruparam junto aos Cantagalo virus, outras cepas de Vaccinia virus e Rabbitpox virus

Season affects strength and direction of the interactive impacts of ocean warming and biotic stress in a coastal seaweed ecosystem

The plea for using more “realistic,” community‐level, investigations to assess the ecological impacts of global change has recently intensified. Such experiments are typically more complex, longer, more expensive, and harder to interpret than simple organism‐level benchtop experiments. Are they worth the extra effort? Using outdoor mesocosms, we investigated the effects of ocean warming (OW) and acidification (OA), their combination (OAW), and their natural fluctuations on coastal communities of the western Baltic Sea during all four seasons. These communities are dominated by the perennial and canopy‐forming macrophyte Fucus vesiculosus—an important ecosystem engineer Baltic‐wide. We, additionally, assessed the direct response of organisms to temperature and pH in benchtop experiments, and examined how well organism‐level responses can predict community‐level responses to the dominant driver, OW. OW affected the mesocosm communities substantially stronger than acidification. OW provoked structural and functional shifts in the community that differed in strength and direction among seasons. The organism‐level response to OW matched well the community‐level response of a given species only under warm and cold thermal stress, that is, in summer and winter. In other seasons, shifts in biotic interactions masked the direct OW effects. The combination of direct OW effects and OW‐driven shifts of biotic interactions is likely to jeopardize the future of the habitat‐forming macroalga F. vesiculosus in the Baltic Sea. Furthermore, we conclude that seasonal mesocosm experiments are essential for our understanding of global change impact because they take into account the important fluctuations of abiotic and biotic pressures

Integrating human dimensions in decadal-scale prediction for marine social–ecological systems: lighting the grey zone

The dynamics of marine systems at decadal scales are notoriously hard to predict—hence references to this timescale as the “grey zone” for ocean prediction. Nevertheless, decadal-scale prediction is a rapidly developing field with an increasing number of applications to help guide ocean stewardship and sustainable use of marine environments. Such predictions can provide industry and managers with information more suited to support planning and management over strategic timeframes, as compared to seasonal forecasts or long-term (century-scale) predic- tions. The most significant advances in capability for decadal-scale prediction over recent years have been for ocean physics and biogeochemistry, with some notable advances in ecological prediction skill. In this paper, we argue that the process of “lighting the grey zone” by providing im- proved predictions at decadal scales should also focus on including human dimensions in prediction systems to better meet the needs and priorities of end users. Our paper reviews information needs for decision-making at decadal scales and assesses current capabilities for meeting these needs. We identify key gaps in current capabilities, including the particular challenge of integrating human elements into decadal prediction systems. We then suggest approaches for overcoming these challenges and gaps, highlighting the important role of co-production of tools and scenarios, to build trust and ensure uptake with end users of decadal prediction systems. We also highlight opportunities for combining narratives and quantitative predictions to better incorporate the human dimension in future efforts to light the grey zone of decadal-scale prediction

Climate change impacts on ecosystem functioning and services provided by temperate benthic ecosystem

The world is going through severe climatic changes and this transition period is characterized by peculiar phenomena. Despite the mean global temperature increase, episodes of higher frequency and longer heatwaves will occur more often. Heatwaves have already disrupted resilience of macrophyte species, resulting in massive mortality of seagrasses and macroalgae. Macrophytes are responsible for considerable amounts of carbon storage and sequestration in marine coastal ecosystems. Many macrophytes are also considered foundation species since they harbor high species diversity, which results in large capacity to structure a community. Thus, heatwaves are able to cause shifts in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The goal of this thesis was to improve the understanding of the mechanistic effect of climate change on temperate coastal marine ecosystems based on macrophytes meadows. The first chapter showed that grazing intensity (that also depends on temperature) contributed to control the amount of carbon stored on the macroalgae and modified the trend to a non-linear pattern. The lowest carbon storage capacity was found between 20 and 22 °C, following the consumption intensity of the grazers. The second chapter, through the analysis of attributes and the application of ecological network analysis, I demonstrated that three sequential heatwaves jeopardized the capacity of the ecosystem to store carbon, since photosynthesis declined and the size of the ecosystem decreased. Moreover, three heatwaves caused a simplification on the pathways of carbon circulation, which makes the ecosystem more vulnerable to further disturbances. In the third chapter, I analyzed with a qualitative network model (loop analysis) the impact of sequential heatwaves on the capacity of the ecosystem to deliver services. The provision of water purification and climate regulation services was impaired, while the capacity of habitat provision did not change after the exposure to heatwaves. Therefore, the conclusions of this thesis are that: (1) both changes in temperature regimes (i.e. average constant and heatwaves) have profound effects on single species physiological performance and modify trophic interactions, thus altering energy circulation in food webs; (2) three consecutive heatwaves during spring/summer represented a threat for the health of the benthic ecosystem studied due to the reduction of productivity and the lowered diversity of energy flows, which increased vulnerability of the system; (3) besides having affected the functioning of the ecosystem, the heatwaves also harmed the capacity of the ecosystem to provide water purification and climate regulation services. This thesis showed that more knowledge on ecosystem functioning and services can be generated by combining experimental and modeling approaches. Furthermore, focusing on whole ecosystems rather than on isolated responses of single organisms expands our comprehension on the effects of changes in temperature regimes, which may assist further climate change mitigation measures

Heatwaves experiment in the Kiel Outdoor Benthocosm 2015: stable isotopes

The data refer to an experiment simulating different frequencies of heatwaves (zero, one and three) in late spring/summer 2015. The experiment was carried out at the Kiel Outdoor Benthocosm (KOB) of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, located at the Kiel Fjord. The organisms were collected from the mesocosm tanks, stored at -80 °C, dried at 60 °C for at least 48 hours, and ground with agate mortar and pestle. The ground material was subsampled, weighed and placed into tin capsules (3.2 × 4.0 mm, Hekatech, Wegberg, Germany). These samples were analysed with an elemental analyser system (NA 1110, Thermo, Milan, Italy) connected to a temperature-controlled gas chromatography oven (SRI 9300, SRI Instruments, Torrance, CA, USA) and to an isotope-ratio mass spectrometer (DeltaPlus Advantage, Thermo Fisher Scientific) as described in Hansen et al. (2009), https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.4267

Heatwaves experiment in the Kiel Outdoor Benthocosm 2015: consumers' respiration

The data were generated during an experiment simulating different frequencies of heatwaves (zero, one and three) in late spring/summer. The experiment was carried out at the Kiel Outdoor Benthocosm (KOB) of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, located at the Kiel Fjord. The consumers were collected from the mesocosm tanks and the respiration rates were measured in the lab. The measurements were carried out on 10.08.2015 (Idotea balthica), 11.08.2015 (Littorina littorea) and 14.08.2015 (Gammarus sp.). The organisms were kept in gas-tight bottles equipped with sensor spots for non-invasive oxygen measurements, which allowed continuous oxygen logging. Throughout the measurements, the bottles were kept in water baths with temperature set to 19.7 °C, which was the temperature all the KOB tanks were exposed to at the time of the measurements. The oxygen values were converted to carbon and normalized by the area of the tank (1.53 m2) per day

Experiment on seagrass (Zostera marina) response to chronically elevated temperature: biomass

This study simulated a 9-months warming scenario on the common seagrass Zostera marina from winter into summer (December 2015 - August 2016) in the Western Baltic Sea (Kiel Fijord), using outdoor mesocosms. Two treatments were applied: Ambient temperature regime (Ambient) and Ambient + 3.6C (Heat) over the entire course of the experiment. Temperature regimes were compared to the 22-year temperature average in the area. This dataset shows final above and below ground biomass per shoot for each shoot measured. The organization of the data is hierarchical: Treatment (Heat, Ambient), Benthocosms number (6 benthocosms per treatment), Seagrass box number (4 boxes per benthocosm), shoot number (originally 6 shoots per box, some were lost throughout the experiment). Unit of biomass is g dry weight per shoot