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South Georgia: a key location for linking physiological capacity to distributional changes in response to climate change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2010

S.A. Morley ,
H.J. Griffiths ,
D.K.A. Barnes  and
L.S. Peck
S.A. Morley*
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
H.J. Griffiths
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
D.K.A. Barnes
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
L.S. Peck
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
*
smor@bas.ac.uk
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Abstract

Antarctic marine invertebrates from the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) are generally stenothermal, with three-month survival and activity limits above the average maximum summer seawater temperature (1.0°C) of 1–6°C and 1–3°C respectively. For many of these species to survive the warmer maximum temperature at the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia (5°C), they require either greater thermal flexibility, or must avoid the warmest water-masses. The mean depths and depth range of WAP gastropod and bivalve molluscs were compared with the mean depths of these same species at South Georgia; separated into water masses delimited by the 1°C isotherm at South Georgia, surface Antarctic water (SAW < 90 m), winter water (WW 90–150 m) and circumpolar deep water (CDW > 150 m). Bivalves in the SAW and CDW categories at the WAP were centred around the cooler WW (< 1.2°C) at South Georgia, with a narrower mean depth range for CDW bivalves. There was no difference in the average depth of gastropods, but a reduced depth range in the CDW. The apparent temperature limit to bivalve mean depths and not gastropods at South Georgia, suggests that further latitudinal comparisons could yield information on the underlying physiological mechanisms determining the range limits of Southern Ocean fauna.

Keywords

depth distributionlatitudinal comparisonsphysiological tolerancerange limitSouthern Oceantemperaturesub-Antarctic
Type
Research Article
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 22 , Special Issue 6: The Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP) , December 2010 , pp. 774 - 781
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2010

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