BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC

oai:digital.csic.es:10261/332956

The study of a species' thermal tolerance and vital rate responses provides useful metrics to characterize its vulnerability to ocean warming. Under prolonged thermal stress, plastic and adaptive processes can adjust the physiology of organisms. Yet it is uncertain whether the species can expand their upper thermal limits to cope with rapid and extreme changes in environmental temperature. In this study, we reared the marine copepod Paracartia grani at control (19°C) and warmer conditions (25°C) for >18 generations and assessed their survival and fecundity under short-term exposure to a range of temperatures (11-34°C). After multigenerational warming, the upper tolerance to acute exposure (24 hours) increased by 1-1.3°C, although this enhancement decreased to 0.3-0.8°C after longer thermal stress (7 days). Warm-reared copepods were smaller and produced significantly fewer offspring at the optimum temperature. No shift in the thermal breadth of the reproductive response was observed. Yet the fecundity rates of the warm-reared copepods in the upper thermal range were up to 21-fold higher than the control. Our results show that chronic warming improved tolerance to stress temperatures and fecundity of P. grani, therefore enhancing its chances to persist under extreme heat events, This research was funded by Grants CTM2017-84288-R and PID2020-118645RB-I00 by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. “ERDF A way of making Europe” C. J. was supported by Grant [PRE2018-084738] funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”, Rearing temperature, generation, exposure temperature, survival 24h, survival 7d, egg production rate, fitness index, egg diameter, female prosome length, Peer reviewed