Linking environmental variables with regional- scale variability in ecological structure and standing stock of carbon within UK kelp forests

Smale, Dan; Burrows, Michael T.; Evans, Ally J.; King, Nathan G.; Sayer, Martin; Yunnie, Anna L. E.; Moore, Pippa J.

doi:10.3354/meps11544

Cited by 80 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…To calculate average site‐specific FW:DW ratios, the fresh weight of the 15 complete plants was recorded in 2015, and individual sections of stipe (~10 cm length) and lamina (5 cm strips of both basal and distal material) were removed and dried at ~60°C for at least 48 hr to determine FW:DW ratios for each section. The stipe and basal and distal parts of the lamina were dried separately as the relationship can vary between different parts of the plant (Smale et al., ). The FW:DW ratios varied between sites and between parts of the plant (Supporting Information Table S4).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the largest average stipe length recorded for a given age class as a proxy for the maximum biomass (and carbon) accumulation attainable within a given location, as carbon assimilation and storage rates have not yet been measured across the geographical range of L. hyperborea . While stipe length is not a direct measure of biomass or carbon assimilation, it is a robust proxy for biomass accumulation for this species, given that: (a) there is a positive relationship between stipe length and plant biomass production (Kain, ), (b) stipes are perennial and long‐lived, reaching a maximum length at ~6 years of age (Kain, ); (c) mature stipes exhibit minimal seasonal or annual variability in length or biomass (Sjøtun & Fredriksen, ); and (d) while stipe length is influenced by a range of factors such as wave exposure and competition for light at local scales (Smale et al., ), maximum attainable length is strongly influenced by environmental conditions at regional scales, of which light and temperature are critically important (Rinde & Sjøtun, ). As we compared populations only on open coastlines and at similar depths across a broad latitudinal gradient (Supporting Information Table S7), temperature was likely to be a principal driver of variability in maximum attainable stipe length.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon assimilation and transfer through kelp forests in the NE Atlantic is diminished under a warmer ocean climate

Pessarrodona

Moore

Sayer

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

112

143

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Global climate change is affecting carbon cycling by driving changes in primary productivity and rates of carbon fixation, release and storage within Earth's vegetated systems. There is, however, limited understanding of how carbon flow between donor and recipient habitats will respond to climatic changes. Macroalgal‐dominated habitats, such as kelp forests, are gaining recognition as important carbon donors within coastal carbon cycles, yet rates of carbon assimilation and transfer through these habitats are poorly resolved. Here, we investigated the likely impacts of ocean warming on coastal carbon cycling by quantifying rates of carbon assimilation and transfer in Laminaria hyperborea kelp forests—one of the most extensive coastal vegetated habitat types in the NE Atlantic—along a latitudinal temperature gradient. Kelp forests within warm climatic regimes assimilated, on average, more than three times less carbon and donated less than half the amount of particulate carbon compared to those from cold regimes. These patterns were not related to variability in other environmental parameters. Across their wider geographical distribution, plants exhibited reduced sizes toward their warm‐water equatorward range edge, further suggesting that carbon flow is reduced under warmer climates. Overall, we estimated that Laminaria hyperborea forests stored ~11.49 Tg C in living biomass and released particulate carbon at a rate of ~5.71 Tg C year−1. This estimated flow of carbon was markedly higher than reported values for most other marine and terrestrial vegetated habitat types in Europe. Together, our observations suggest that continued warming will diminish the amount of carbon that is assimilated and transported through temperate kelp forests in NE Atlantic, with potential consequences for the coastal carbon cycle. Our findings underline the need to consider climate‐driven changes in the capacity of ecosystems to fix and donate carbon when assessing the impacts of climate change on carbon cycling.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon assimilation and transfer through kelp forests in the NE Atlantic is diminished under a warmer ocean climate

Pessarrodona

Moore

Sayer

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

112

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Every month and for each of the retrieved plants, we determined the relationship between dry and fresh wt (DW:FW) by drying one of the basal and distal segments at 60°C for 48 hr. The basal and distal parts of the lamina were examined separately as the relationship can vary between different parts of the thallus (Smale et al., ). All relationships were highly significant and had an R 2 ≥ 0.85.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate‐driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests

2018

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Climate change is driving a redistribution of species and the reconfiguration of ecological communities at a global scale. Persistent warming in many regions has caused species to extend their geographical ranges into new habitats, with thermally tolerant species often becoming competitively dominant over species with colder affinities. Although these climate‐driven changes in species abundance and diversity are well documented, their ecosystem‐level implications are poorly understood, and resolving whether reconfigured communities can maintain fundamental ecosystem functions represents a pressing challenge in an increasingly warmer world. Here, we investigated how climate‐driven substitutions of foundation species influence processes associated with the cycling of organic matter (biomass production, detritus flow, herbivory, decomposition) by comparing two habitat‐forming kelp species with contrasting thermal affinities. We examined the wider ecosystem consequences of such shifts for the observed (and predicted) emergence of novel marine forest communities in the NE Atlantic, which are expected to become more dominated by range‐expanding, warm‐temperate kelp species. Warm‐temperate kelps both accumulated and released 80% more biomass than the cold‐temperate species despite being taxonomically closely related and morphologically similar. Furthermore, the warm‐temperate species accumulated biomass and released detritus year‐round, whereas the cold‐temperate species did so during short, discrete periods. The warm‐temperate kelps supported higher densities of invertebrate grazers and were a preferred food source. Finally, their detritus decomposed 6.5 times faster, despite supporting comparable numbers of detritivores. Overall, our results indicate an important shift in organic matter circulation along large sections of NE Atlantic coastline following the climate‐driven expansion of a warm‐affinity kelp, with novel forests supplying large amounts of temporally continuous—yet highly labile—organic matter. Synthesis. Collectively, our results show that, like species invasions, climate‐driven range expansions and consequent shifts in the identity of dominant species can modify a wide range of important ecosystem processes. However, alterations in overall ecosystem functioning may be relatively limited where foundation species share similar ecological and functional traits.

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“…In recent years, marine ecologists interested in the physiology and ecology of coastal organisms, such as habitat-forming seaweeds, have collected in situ temperature data at high temporal resolution from various shallow subtidal habitats [36,37]. Typically, temperature loggers have been deployed on the sea bed at ∼3-15 m below chart datum, deeper than water temperature measurements commonly used in satellite validation studies, where they record temperature continuously over long periods of time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Operational AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature Data at the Coastline Using Benthic Temperature Loggers

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The nearshore coastal ocean is one of the most dynamic and biologically productive regions on our planet, supporting a wide range of ecosystem services. It is also one of the most vulnerable regions, increasingly exposed to anthropogenic pressure. In the context of climate change, monitoring changes in nearshore coastal waters requires systematic and sustained observations of key essential climate variables (ECV), one of which is sea surface temperature (SST). As temperature influences physical, chemical and biological processes within coastal systems, accurate monitoring is crucial for detecting change. SST is an ECV that can be measured systematically from satellites. Yet, owing to a lack of adequate in situ data, the accuracy and precision of satellite SST at the coastline are not well known. In a prior study, we attempted to address this by taking advantage of in situ SST measurements collected by a group of surfers. Here, we make use of a three year time-series (2014-2017) of in situ water temperature measurements collected using a temperature logger (recording every 30 min) deployed within a kelp forest (∼3 m below chart datum) at a subtidal rocky reef site near Plymouth, UK. We compared the temperature measurements with three other independent in situ SST datasets in the region, from two autonomous buoys located ∼7 km and ∼33 km from the coastline, and from a group of surfers at two beaches near the kelp site. The three datasets showed good agreement, with discrepancies consistent with the spatial separation of the sites. The in situ SST measurements collected from the kelp site and the two autonomous buoys were matched with operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) EO SST passes, all within 1 h of the in situ data. By extracting data from the closest satellite pixel to the three sites, we observed a significant reduction in the performance of AVHRR at retrieving SST at the coastline, with root mean square differences at the kelp site over twice that observed at the two offshore buoys. Comparing the in situ water temperature data with pixels surrounding the kelp site revealed the performance of the satellite data improves when moving two to three pixels offshore and that this improvement was better when using an SST algorithm that treats each pixel independently in the retrieval process. At the three sites, we related differences between satellite and in situ SST data with a suite of atmospheric variables, collected from a nearby atmospheric observatory, and a high temporal resolution land surface temperature (LST) dataset. We found that differences between satellite and in situ SST at the coastline (kelp site) were well correlated with LST and solar zenith angle; implying contamination of the pixel by land is the principal cause of these larger differences at the coastline, as opposed to issues with atmospheric correction. This contamination could be either from land directly within the pixel, potentially impacted by errors in geo-location, or possibly through thermal adjacenc...

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Linking environmental variables with regional- scale variability in ecological structure and standing stock of carbon within UK kelp forests

Cited by 80 publications

References 79 publications

Carbon assimilation and transfer through kelp forests in the NE Atlantic is diminished under a warmer ocean climate

Carbon assimilation and transfer through kelp forests in the NE Atlantic is diminished under a warmer ocean climate

Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate‐driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests

Evaluating Operational AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature Data at the Coastline Using Benthic Temperature Loggers

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