Central and rear-edge populations can be equally vulnerable to warming

Scott Bennett (), Thomas Wernberg, Bijo Arackal Joy, Thibaut de Bettignies and Alexandra H. Campbell
Additional contact information
Scott Bennett: UWA Oceans Institute (M470) and School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Thomas Wernberg: UWA Oceans Institute (M470) and School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Bijo Arackal Joy: UWA Oceans Institute (M470) and School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Thibaut de Bettignies: UWA Oceans Institute (M470) and School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Alexandra H. Campbell: Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Rear (warm) edge populations are often considered more susceptible to warming than central (cool) populations because of the warmer ambient temperatures they experience, but this overlooks the potential for local variation in thermal tolerances. Here we provide conceptual models illustrating how sensitivity to warming is affected throughout a species’ geographical range for locally adapted and non-adapted populations. We test these models for a range-contracting seaweed using observations from a marine heatwave and a 12-month experiment, translocating seaweeds among central, present and historic range edge locations. Growth, reproductive development and survivorship display different temperature thresholds among central and rear-edge populations, but share a 2.5 °C anomaly threshold. Range contraction, therefore, reflects variation in local anomalies rather than differences in absolute temperatures. This demonstrates that warming sensitivity can be similar throughout a species geographical range and highlights the importance of incorporating local adaptation and acclimatization into climate change vulnerability assessments.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10280 Abstract (text/html)

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:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10280

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10280

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().