Dr Jordi Boada1, Ms Anaïs Barrera1, Mr Samir Aillouane1, Ms Chloé Carbonne1, Dr Jérémy Carlot1, Dr Emma Cebrian2, Dr Steeve Comeau1, Dr Valentina Esposito3, Ms Cristina Galobart2, Mr Fernando García González1, Dr Jean-Pierre Gattuso1, Dr Luisa Mangialajo4, Dr Núria Marbà5, Dr Gabrielle Procaccini6, Dr Jana Verdura4, Dr Cinzia de Vittor3, Dr Núria Teixidó1
1Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, Sorbonne Université, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, 2Centre D’Estudis Avancats De Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Blanes, Spain, 3National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, Sgonico, Italy, 4Faculty of Sciences, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France, 5Institut Mediterrani D’Estudis Avançats (IMEDEA-CSIC), Esporles, Spain, 6Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
Ocean environmental conditions are being rapidly altered due to the effects of global change. Ocean acidification resulting from the absorption of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and ocean warming are predicted to have critical effects on primary producers. Foundation marine macrophytes are considered among the tipping-elements of our planetary system as well as a buffering agent against changing climate. To date, there has been little investigation on how marine primary producers will respond to increased temperature and decreased pH together and which will be their capacity to buffer environmental changes in the future. Here, we present a set of 2 studies designed to understand the performance and productivity of temperate forest-forming macrophytes (a seagrass species and two canopy-forming seaweed) under future ocean conditions at both species and community levels. These studies were developed using plants from natural CO2 vents in the Mediterranean Sea. Seagrasses acclimated to future pH showed increased productivity in the three different temperature scenarios modeled. Despite seaweed changes in productivity were less evident, their capacity to buffer acidification may be comparable to those of seagrasses. Our findings are critical to understand the future fate of marine forests that catastrophically collapse if certain environmental thresholds are crossed and after which their ecological function and associated services might be irreversibly lost.
Presentation Slides – Jordi Boada
Biography:
Jordi Boada (Google Scholar) is a MSCA postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefrance (LOV), France. His research focuses on understanding resilience of marine communities. Within the framework of his Marie Curie project (SHIFT2SOLVE), Jordi aims forecasting the resilience of marine macrophytes as a tipping element to future environmental conditions by studying species acclimatization capacity.
