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Published (Version of record)CC BY V3.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V3.0, Open
Journal article
Differential response to abiotic stress controls species distributions at biogeographic transition zones
Ecography, Vol.41(3), pp.478-490
03/2018
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Source: InCites
Abstract
Understanding range limits is critical to predicting species responses to climate change. Subtropical environments, where many species overlap at their range margins, are cooler, more light-limited and variable than tropical environments. It is thus likely that species respond variably to these multi-stressor regimes and that factors other than mean climatic conditions drive biodiversity patterns. Here, we tested these hypotheses for scleractinian corals at their high-latitude range limits in eastern Australia and investigated the role of mean climatic conditions and of parameters linked to abiotic stress in explaining the distribution and abundance of different groups of species. We found that environmental drivers varied among taxa and were predominantly linked to abiotic stress. The distribution and abundance of tropical species and gradients in species richness (alpha diversity) and turnover (beta diversity) were best explained by light limitation, whereas minimum temperatures and temperature fluctuations best explained gradients in subtropical species, species nestedness and functional diversity. Variation in community structure (considering species composition and abundance) was most closely linked to the combined thermal and light regime. Our study demonstrates the role of abiotic stress in controlling the distribution of species towards their high-latitude range limits and suggests that, at biogeographic transition zones, robust predictions of the impacts of climate change require approaches that account for various aspects of physiological stress and for species abundances and characteristics. These findings support the hypothesis that abiotic stress controls high-latitude range limits and caution that projections solely based on mean temperature could underestimate species’ vulnerabilities to climate change.
Details
- Title
- Differential response to abiotic stress controls species distributions at biogeographic transition zones
- Creators
- Brigitte Sommer - University of QueenslandMaria Beger - University of QueenslandPeter L Harrison - Southern Cross UniversityRuss C Babcock - CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric ResearchJohn M Pandolfi - University of Queensland
- Publication Details
- Ecography, Vol.41(3), pp.478-490
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.; Oxford, UK
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- We acknowledge the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence (ARC CoE) for Coral Reef Studies grant to JMP and others (CE0561435 and CE140100020) and the Univ. of Queensland (UQ) for funding. BS was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award through UQ and by an Integrated Natural Resource Management scholarship from CSIRO, and MB by an ARC Linkage project (LP0774850), the ARC CoE for Coral Reef Studies, and a Discovery Early Career Research Award to the ARC CoE for Environmental Decisions (CE110001014).
- Identifiers
- 991012927078602368
- Copyright
- © 2017 The Authors. Ecography © 2017 Nordic Society Oikos. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
- Academic Unit
- Science; Marine Ecology Research Centre; School of Environment, Science and Engineering; Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article