Temperature-induced metabolic performance in early life stages of two brachyuran crabs.

Understanding marine species' metabolic responses to short- and long-term temperature variation is critical for predicting the resilience of communities and ecosystems at local and global scales. This study investigated the effect of temperature on the routine metabolic rate (RMR) across the zoea and megalopa stages of two brachyuran species, Hymenosoma orbiculare and Pinnotheres sp. Respirometry results under temperatures ranging from 11 to 25 °C revealed stage- and species-specific metabolic responses.

Global complexities and challenges in the restoration of hypersaline coastal wetlands.

Wetlands in hypersaline environments are especially vulnerable to loss and degradation, as increasing coastal urbanization and climate change rapidly exacerbate freshwater supply stressors. Hypersaline wetlands pose unique management challenges that require innovative restoration perspectives and approaches that consider complex local and regional socioecological dynamics. In part, this challenge stems from multiple co-occurring stressors and anthropogenic alterations, including estuary mouth closure and freshwater diversions at the catchment scale.

Metal bioaccumulation in marine invertebrates and risk assessment in sediments from South African coastal harbours and natural rocky shores.

Industrial and urban activities are major contributors to metal contamination in coastal systems, often impacting the physiology, distribution and diversity of marine invertebrates. This study assessed metal contaminations in sediments, seawater, algae and invertebrates across four armoured systems (harbours) and two natural sites along the south coast of South Africa. Bioaccumulation factors such as Biosediment (BSAF), Biowater (BWAF), Bioaccumulation (BAF) and bioremediation of metals by invertebrate bioindicators were also determined.

Long term environmental variability modulates the epigenetics of maternal traits of kelp crabs in the coast of Chile.

The methylation of DNA is an environmentally inducible epigenetic mechanism reflecting the short-term ecological and environmental background of populations. Marine invertebrate populations, which spread along a latitudinal cline, are particularly suitable for profiling DNA methylation, due to the heterogenous environmental conditions experienced. We used the MSAP (Methylation Sensitive Amplified Polymorphism) technique to investigate the natural variation in DNA methylation of different female's tissues (muscle, gonads, and gills) and early-stage eggs from five populations of the kelp crab Taliepus dentatus, distributed along a latitudinal cline in the coast of Chile.

A functional analysis reveals extremely low redundancy in global mangrove invertebrate fauna.

Deforestation results in habitat fragmentation, decreasing diversity, and functional degradation. For mangroves, no data are available on the impact of deforestation on the diversity and functionality of the specialized invertebrate fauna, critical for their functioning. We compiled a global dataset of mangrove invertebrate fauna comprising 364 species from 16 locations, classified into 64 functional entities (FEs).

Thermal tolerance, safety margins and vulnerability of coastal species: Projected impact of climate change induced cold water variability in a temperate African region.

Anthropogenic induced climate change is predicted to increase the thermal variability in coastal waters, which can have strong physiological effects on individuals and populations of marine ectotherms. The magnitude and direction of these thermal effects varies depending on species, life stage, biogeography, habitat and season. This study aimed to compare the thermal tolerance of a range of juvenile fish and adult macro-invertebrates from intertidal and estuarine habitats in a warm-temperate, thermally variable region on the south-east coast of South Africa.

Contrasting environments shape thermal physiology across the spatial range of the sandhopper Talorchestia capensis.

Integrating thermal physiology and species range extent can contribute to a better understanding of the likely effects of climate change on natural populations. Generally, broadly distributed species show variation in thermal physiology between populations. Within their distributional ranges, populations at the edges are assumed to experience more challenging environments than central populations (fundamental niche breadth hypothesis).

Temperature Effects on Reproductive Allocation in the Sandhopper Talorchestia capensis.

In invertebrates, environmental temperature may induce mothers to invest differently in the early development of their offspring. In ectotherms, temperature affects offspring phenotype so that colder mothers produce larger eggs. However, developmental mode and maternal size also contribute to the determination of optimal offspring size.

Environmental domains and range-limiting mechanisms: testing the Abundant Centre Hypothesis using southern African sandhoppers.

Predicting shifts of species geographical ranges is a fundamental challenge for conservation ecologists given the great complexity of factors involved in setting range limits. Distributional patterns are frequently modelled to "simplify" species responses to the environment, yet the central mechanisms that drive a particular pattern are rarely understood. We evaluated the distributions of two sandhopper species (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Talitridae), Talorchestia capensis and Africorchestia quadrispinosa along the Namibian and South African coasts, encompassing three biogeographic regions influenced by two different oceanographic systems, the Benguela and Agulhas currents.