Ms Celina Burkholz1, Samuel Starko1, Dr Karen Filbee-Dexter1,2, Adjunct Professor Melinda A. Coleman1,3,4, Professor Thomas Wernberg1,2
1Oceans Institute and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia, 2Institute of Marine Research, His, Norway, 3Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales Fisheries, Coffs Harbour, Australia, 4National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
One of the key challenges of climate change is a species’ ability to adapt its performance to changing environmental conditions. Mixed responses to stressors can vary on spatial and temporal scales, between and within populations, and can be influenced by local adaptation, genetic diversity and plasticity of a population. While differences in performance measures between populations have mostly been identified, intraspecific variation within a population is largely unknown and identifying high-performing individuals and survivors can be an indicator of a population’s vulnerability to a changing climate.
In this study we assessed seasonal variation in performance of two natural Ecklonia radiata populations in Western Australia. We measured elongation rates and mortality of over 400 individuals across two locations over a two-year time period. By monitoring tagged individuals, this study aimed to evaluate the magnitude of variance within a population over seasons and identify high-performing individuals. Our findings show a similar trend for variance and elongation rates, with an increase in the colder months. While we found differences between individuals with some kelps consistently high- or low-performing, there was no clear relationship between higher elongation rates and survival.
Our results provide an understanding of differences in vulnerability of natural populations and the implications of performance measures for future assessments of
populations in a changing climate.
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