Abstract
Marine species not only suffer from direct effects of warming oceans but also indirectly via the emergence of novel species interactions. While metabolic adjustments can be crucial to improve resilience to warming, it is largely unknown if this improves performance relative to novel competitors. We aimed to identify if spiny lobsters—inhabiting a global warming and species re-distribution hotspot—align their metabolic performance to improve resilience to both warming and novel species interactions. We measured metabolic and escape capacity of two Australian spiny lobsters, resident Jasus edwardsii and the range-shifting Sagmariasus verreauxi, acclimated to current average—(14.0 °C), current summer—(17.5 °C) and projected future summer—(21.5 °C) habitat temperatures. We found that both species decreased their standard metabolic rate with increased acclimation temperature, while sustaining their scope for aerobic metabolism. However, the resident lobster showed reduced anaerobic escape performance at warmer temperatures and failed to match the metabolic capacity of the range-shifting lobster. We conclude that although resident spiny lobsters optimise metabolism in response to seasonal and future temperature changes, they may be unable to physiologically outperform their range-shifting competitors. This highlights the critical importance of exploring direct as well as indirect effects of temperature changes to understand climate change impacts.
Highlights
Marine species suffer from direct effects of warming oceans and indirectly via the emergence of novel species interactions
This study aimed to identify if resident and range-shifting, co-occurring spiny lobster species inhabiting an Australian warming hotspot: (1) adjust their metabolism in response to seasonal and forecasted temperature changes and (2) if this leads to a relative shift of metabolic performance between the two species
Warm-acclimated (21.5 °C) J. edwardsii showed a 10–20% lower maximum metabolic rate compared to the 17.5 °C and 14 °C acclimation groups at 14 °C experimental temperature (Fig. 2a, Table 2)
Summary
Marine species suffer from direct effects of warming oceans and indirectly via the emergence of novel species interactions. We measured metabolic and escape capacity of two Australian spiny lobsters, resident Jasus edwardsii and the range-shifting Sagmariasus verreauxi, acclimated to current average—(14.0 °C), current summer—(17.5 °C) and projected future summer—(21.5 °C) habitat temperatures. We found that both species decreased their standard metabolic rate with increased acclimation temperature, while sustaining their scope for aerobic metabolism. We conclude that resident spiny lobsters optimise metabolism in response to seasonal and future temperature changes, they may be unable to physiologically outperform their range-shifting competitors This highlights the critical importance of exploring direct as well as indirect effects of temperature changes to understand climate change impacts. It is essential to understand species’ capacity for physiological plasticity to predict their future distributions and outcomes of biotic interactions[8]
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