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Medientyp:
E-Artikel
Titel:
Ocean Warming Effects on Growth, Reproduction, and Survivorship of Southern California Abalone
Beteiligte:
Tegner, Mia J.;
Riser, Kristin L.;
Dayton, Paul K.
Erschienen:
Ecological Society of America, 2005
Erschienen in:Ecological Applications
Sprache:
Englisch
ISSN:
1051-0761
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
<p>Traditional fisheries management in southern California has failed, in part because it is based on an assumption of an unvarying environment and is focused on size limits rather than insuring the persistence of aggregations of large fecund individuals. The combined effect of low frequency climatic variability and anthropogenic perturbations can have dramatic consequences for abalone in southern California. Abalone species are tightly linked to kelp forest ecosystems that, besides furnishing habitat, also provide the main food source for abalone. In southern California, kelp canopies are very sensitive to oceanographic climate because the kelp depend upon high nutrients in the water column. Oceanic warming, in turn, results in decreased nutrients in the surface water, and this is correlated with marked reductions in giant kelp biomass. Here we address the additive effects of ocean warming on two species of California abalone (the red abalone, Haliotis rufescens; and the green abalone, H. fulgens) by subjecting them to varied environmental conditions similar to cool, normal, and warm phases of the California current in the southern California Bight. Our experimental design simultaneously tested the synergistic effects of temperature and food quantity and quality on survivorship, growth, and reproduction. For red abalone, warm temperatures increased the onset of withering syndrome, a fatal abalone disease, and halted growth and reproduction. In contrast, green abalone survivorship, growth, and reproduction were relatively robust irrespective of temperature, while their growth and reproduction were most strongly influenced by food quantity. We found clear evidence suggesting that, combined with overfishing, California abalone populations are adversely affected by ecosystem responses to ocean warming: Coolwater red abalone suffer stronger consequences in warm water than do green abalone. Conservation, restoration, and recovery plans of remnant California abalone populations must consider these relationships when taking any action.</p>