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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Marco FusiORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Environmental fluctuation forms a framework of variability within which species have evolved. Environmental fluctuation includes predictability, such as diel cycles of aquatic oxygen fluctuation driven by primary producers. Oxygen availability and fluctuation shape the physiological responses of aquatic animals to warming, so that, in theory, oxygen fluctuation could influence their thermal ecology. We describe annual oxygen variability in agricultural drainage channels and show that disruption of oxygen fluctuation through dredging of plants reduces the thermal tolerance of freshwater animals. We compared the temperature responses of snails, amphipods, leeches and mussels exposed to either natural oxygen fluctuation or constant oxygen in situ under different acclimation periods. Oxygen saturation in channel water ranged from c. 0 % saturation at night to >300 % during the day. Temperature showed normal seasonal variation and was almost synchronous with daily oxygen fluctuation. A dredging event in 2020 dramatically reduced dissolved oxygen variability and the correlation between oxygen and temperature was lost. The tolerance of invertebrates to thermal stress was significantly lower when natural fluctuation in oxygen availability was reduced and decoupled from temperature. This highlights the importance of natural cycles of variability and the need to include finer scale effects, including indirect biological effects, in modelling the ecosystem-level consequences of climate change. Furthermore, restoration and management of primary producers in aquatic habitats could be important to improve the thermal protection of aquatic invertebrates and their resistance to environmental variation imposed by climate change.
Author(s): Booth JM, Giomi F, Daffonchio D, McQuaid CD, Fusi M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Science of The Total Environment
Year: 2023
Volume: 872
Pages: 162135
Print publication date: 10/05/2023
Online publication date: 11/02/2023
Acceptance date: 05/02/2023
Date deposited: 18/10/2024
ISSN (print): 0048-9697
ISSN (electronic): 1879-1026
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162135
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162135
Data Access Statement: Data will be made available on request.
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