Energy and life history theory to predict ecological responses of marine organisms in the Mediterranean Sea in a context of global change

• Main Authors: Sarà G, La Manna G, Lo Martire M, Montalto A, Palmeri A, Ribaudo R, Rinaldi A., BRACCIALI, CLAUDIA
• Other Authors: Bracciali C, Rinaldi A
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2318/132089

Energy is the key-factor to understand the ecological success of a species in a context of global change. Indeed, successful populations persist over time if individuals can manage sufficient energy to maintain structures, growth and reproduce throughout their whole life cycle. The prime effect of global change factors (e.g., increasing temperature, ocean acidification, sea level rise and chemical, physical and noise pollution) is to affect the amount of energy available to individuals of a population by altering the common patterns of functional trait's expression. If most individuals of a population obtain less energy than usual standards, that population will decline. Reduced amount of energy may involve individuals adopting trade-offs between reproduction and survival if they have an impaired ability either to obtain food from the environment or to manage energy from ingested food. Here we combine first principles of the biophysical ecology and energy budget models to predict the effect of global change factors on the amount of energy manageable by marine ectotherms like invertebrates and fish. In particular, we show how the increasing temperature and ocean acidification affect functional traits (adult body size and/or egg number) and general performance of marine invertebrates (e.g. bivalves) and fish living on rocky (intertidal pools) and soft bottom habitats (lagoons and ponds). We will use this basal information to obtain prediction about the geographic range of our target species.