Abstract
As plants on land, seaweeds are likely to be susceptible to temperature-mediated changes in phenology such as shifts in their reproductive timing. With this review, we aimed to investigate the importance of temperature on reproductive phenophase transitions (i.e. maturation and release of propagules) of temperate seaweeds while discussing how global warming might affect their reproductive phenology. A systematic literature search returned a total of 81 relevant papers, which were reviewed for evidence of environmental, factors (including temperature) driving reproductive phenology. Only a few of studies reported effects of temperature on propagule release (spores and gametes). In contrast, reproductive maturation (both sporogenesis and gametogenesis) was found predominantly to be controlled by temperature. Our findings highlight the potential for phenological shifts in seaweeds in response to ocean warming. In contrast to the consistent advancement of spring events observed for terrestrial plants, there was evidence that warming can both advance and delay the timing of reproductive events for temperate seaweeds, especially the maturation of propagules. Because temperature was often found to act in combination with either day length or spectral composition, ocean warming might result in a mismatch between light and temperature requirements that could lead to reduced reproductive performance.
Highlights
Shifts in phenology—the seasonal timing of species’ life-cycle events—has been one of the most pervasive biological responses to global warming over the past decades (Walther et al, 2002; Parmesan and Yohe, 2003; Menzel et al, 2006; Parmesan, 2006; Poloczanska et al, 2013)
We searched available on-line data bases including the Web of Science, Current Contents, the UWA library collection, One Search and Google Scholar using different combinations of key words pertaining to seaweeds and their reproduction: “seaweed,” “macroalgae,” “temperate,” “reproduction,” “reproductive ecology,” “spore,” “zoospore,” “carpospore,” “tetraspore,” “gamete,” “phenology,” “seasonality,” “gametogenesis,” “sporogenesis,” “sporulation,” “tetrasporogenesis,” “control,” “trigger,” and “cue.” Additional papers were located by backtracking from the reference lists in the initial search publications
This review has highlighted the importance of temperature for reproductive maturation in temperate seaweeds
Summary
Shifts in phenology—the seasonal timing of species’ life-cycle events—has been one of the most pervasive biological responses to global warming over the past decades (Walther et al, 2002; Parmesan and Yohe, 2003; Menzel et al, 2006; Parmesan, 2006; Poloczanska et al, 2013). Detecting impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems has been severely impeded by the lack of suitable baselines and time series against which to detect change, and these limitations have been severe in marine ecosystems (Richardson and Poloczanska, 2008; Brown et al, 2011; Wernberg et al, 2012). Given that many marine species are in close equilibrium with their thermal niches (Sunday et al, 2012) and that thermal variation across varying time scales in the marine environment is narrower than those observed in most terrestrial ecosystems (Pearson and Brawley, 1996; Miller-Rushing and Primack, 2008), it is reasonable to expect that phenological shifts in marine species will be similar or even more pronounced in response to climate warming, to what has already been observed on land
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