Abstract
Many Antarctic marine invertebrates are considered to be highly stenothermal, subjected to loss of functionality at increased temperatures and so at high risk of mortality in a rapidly warming environment. The bivalveLaternula ellipticais often used as a model taxon to test these theories. Here, we report the first instanceL. ellipticafrom an intertidal site. Genetic analysis of the tissue confirms the species identity. A total of seven animals ranging in length from 6 to 85mm were collected from 3×0.25m2quadrats of intertidal sediments at St Martha Cove on James Ross Island, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula. Ambient temperatures of 7.5°C within the sediment and 10°C (air) were recorded. This raises questions as to the current perception that “many Antarctic marine invertebrates cannot adapt to higher temperatures”.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 227-230 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Polar Biology |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 6 May 2016 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Keywords
- Ecophysiology
- Temperature
- Stenothermal
- Climate change
- Bivalve
