Climate change and increased environmental variability: Demographic responses in an estuarine harpacticoid copepod

Courtney E. Richmond, David S. Wethey and Sarah A. Woodin

Ecological Modelling, 2007, vol. 209, issue 2, 189-202

Abstract: Climate change models predict that in the future, extreme events will be more common and of greater magnitude. In the southeastern United States, this is expected to include increased precipitation and more frequent extreme precipitation events, resulting in more freshwater runoff into coastal habitats. Marine and estuarine communities in this region can expect more frequent and larger salinity reductions if climate change model predictions are realized. We studied a benthic harpacticoid copepod to test the effects of environmental variability, in the form of estuarine salinity reductions, on vital rates. Specifically, we tested the effects of 3-day salinity reductions on the harpacticoid copepod Amphiascus tenuiremis. We varied the magnitude of salinity reduction (pre-storm: 30‰, reduced to 10 or 15‰) and the timing of salinity reduction relative to life stage (naupliar, copepodite, adult). Survival and fecundity decreased with salinity reductions of greater magnitude and with exposure during earlier life stages. An age-classified Leslie matrix model constructed using these data predicted lower population growth rates with exposure to salinity reduction of greater magnitude or during an earlier life stage, although this trend was not significant.

Keywords: Climate change; Environmental variability; Harpacticoid copepods; Population dynamics; Salinity reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380007003389
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:209:y:2007:i:2:p:189-202

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.06.023

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().