Ocean warming is expected to impinge detrimentally on marine ecosystems worldwide up to impose extreme environmental conditions capable to potentially jeopardize the good ecological status of scleractinian coral reefs at shallow and bathyal depths. The integration of literature records with newly acquired remotely operated vehicle (ROV) data provides an overview of the geographic distribution of the temperate coral Dendrophyllia cornigera spanning the eastern Atlantic Ocean to the whole Mediterranean Sea. In addition, we extracted temperature values at each occurrence site to define the natural range of this coral, known to maintain its physiological processes at 16°C. Our results document a living temperature range between ∼7°C and 17°C, suggesting that the natural thermal tolerance of this eurybathic coral may represent an advantage for its survival in a progressively warming ocean.
The Yellow Coral Dendrophyllia cornigera in a Warming Ocean / Castellan G.; Angeletti L.; Taviani M.; Montagna P.. - In: FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE. - ISSN 2296-7745. - ELETTRONICO. - 6:(2019), pp. 692.1-692.6. [10.3389/fmars.2019.00692]
The Yellow Coral Dendrophyllia cornigera in a Warming Ocean
Castellan G.Writing – Original Draft Preparation
;
2019
Abstract
Ocean warming is expected to impinge detrimentally on marine ecosystems worldwide up to impose extreme environmental conditions capable to potentially jeopardize the good ecological status of scleractinian coral reefs at shallow and bathyal depths. The integration of literature records with newly acquired remotely operated vehicle (ROV) data provides an overview of the geographic distribution of the temperate coral Dendrophyllia cornigera spanning the eastern Atlantic Ocean to the whole Mediterranean Sea. In addition, we extracted temperature values at each occurrence site to define the natural range of this coral, known to maintain its physiological processes at 16°C. Our results document a living temperature range between ∼7°C and 17°C, suggesting that the natural thermal tolerance of this eurybathic coral may represent an advantage for its survival in a progressively warming ocean.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
fmars-06-00692_compressed.pdf
accesso aperto
Tipo:
Versione (PDF) editoriale
Licenza:
Licenza per Accesso Aperto. Creative Commons Attribuzione (CCBY)
Dimensione
282.36 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
282.36 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.