TEMPERATURE | Effects of Climate Change

Abstract

Temperature change is currently a main driving force causing shifts in the geographical distribution of species and in the species composition of marine ecosystems, the reason being that marine fauna and their life stages are specialized on thermal windows limited to their ambient temperature regime. Increasingly, temperature also interacts with other stressors operative at large scales, such as CO2-induced ocean acidification and hypoxia, in warming more stratified oceans. For animals, the concept of oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance provides a framework in which to understand the physiological mechanisms that determine thermal windows. This concept distinguishes between the temperature ranges associated with long-term survival, growth, and reproduction, and the wider temperature ranges associated with time-limited passive endurance of temperature extremes. It suggests that the former depends upon available aerobic scope and the latter on the capacity of stress-protection mechanisms. These thermal windows and their differences between interacting species may provide a framework in which to address the mechanisms and limitation of thermal specialization, as well as ecosystem-level complexities such as the effects of global climate change.