Aim: Biological invasions and changes in land and sea use are amongst the five major causes of global biodiversity decline. Shipping and ocean sprawl (multiplication of artificial structures at the expense of natural habitats) are considered as the major forces responsible for marine invasions and biotic homogenization. And yet, there is little evidence of their interplay at multiple spatial scales. Here, we aimed to examine this interaction and the extent to which the type of...

To understand the thermal plasticity of a coastal foundation species across its latitudinal distribution, we assess physiological responses to high temperature stress in the kelp Laminaria digitata in combination with population genetic characteristics and relate heat resilience to genetic features and phylogeography. We hypothesize that populations from Arctic and cold-temperate locations are less heat resilient than populations from warm distributional edges. Using meristems of natural L. digitata populations from six locations ranging between Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen...

Worldwide, kelp populations are stressed by warming, increased storms and other man-driven disturbances. Marine population distributions are projected to retreat poleward with climate change if they cannot adapt to changing conditions, which would potentially lead to a regime shift in subtidal habitats. In Northern Europe, Laminaria hyperboreais a subtidal ecosystem engineer whose distribution has shifted over millennia, leaving predicted areas of high genetic diversity from the last glacial maximum (LGM) near its southern distribution limit...

We aim to understand the thermal plasticity of a coastal foundation species across its latitudinal distribution by assessing physiological responses to high temperature stress in the kelp Laminaria digitata in combination with population genetic characteristics. We hypothesize that Arctic and cold-temperate populations are less heat resilient than warm-temperate populations. Using meristems of natural L. digitata populations from six locations ranging between Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen (79°N), and Quiberon, France (47°N), we performed a common-garden heat stress experiment...

Aim Plankton diversity is a pivotal element of marine ecosystem stability and functioning. A major obstacle in the assessment of diversity is the lack of consistency between patterns assessed by molecular and morphological data. This work aims to reconcile the two in a single richness measure, to investigate the environmental drivers affecting such measure, and finally to predict its spatio-temporal patterns. Location & Time period This is a global-scale study, based on data collected within...