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| Titel |
Selective responses of benthic foraminifera to thermal pollution |
| VerfasserIn |
Danna Titelboim, Ahuva Almogi-Labin, Barak Herut, Michal Kucera, Christiane Schmidt, Orit Hyams-Kaphzan, Ofer Ovadia, Sigal Abramovich |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250121550
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-322.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Predictions of future climate and recent observations point towards a trend of rising
temperatures in the Middle East region. The temperature rise propagates into the marine
environment, with shallow, coastal ecosystems being most affected. An ideal model system to
study the effect of increased temperatures in coastal ecosystems is presented by benthic
foraminifera. The persistent of thermohaline pollution at a site along the northern coast of
Israel, attributed to a power and desalination plant, is used as a natural laboratory to evaluate
the effects of rising temperature and salinity on benthic foraminifera living in shallow hard
bottom habitats.
Biomonitoring of the disturbed area and a control station shows that elevated temperature is a
more significant stressor than salinity. The deleterious effect of extreme temperatures is
indicated by a decrease in numerical abundances and reduced species richness, eventually
leading to substantial changes in community composition. Critical temperature thresholds
were observed at 30˚ C and 35˚ C, the latter observed by the most thermally tolerant species
Pararotalia calcariformata, the only symbiont bearing species observed within the heated
area.
Common species of the shallow hard bottom habitats are almost absent from the most
extreme site indicating that they presently live very close to their upper temperature
threshold, and that excess warming will likely impede their future survival in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Several of these species are either proven or suspected to be
tropical Lessepsian. Thus, considering present models of expected north-western
future expansion of Lessepsian species in the Mediterranean, our study show that it
is important to consider excess warming as a major stressor that will limit their
distribution. |
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