Browsing by Author "Monsinjon, Jonathan R."
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- Effects of habitat quality on abundance, size and growth of mussel recruitsPublication . Oróstica, Mauricio H.; Wyness, Adam J.; Monsinjon, Jonathan R.; Nicastro, Katy; Zardi, Gerardo; Barker, Cassandra; McQuaid, Christopher D.Recruitment of mussels is a complex process with the successful arrival of individuals hinging on the availability of suitable habitats. We examined the effects of adult mussels as settlement habitat and the degree to which the suitability of habitat they offer is species-specific by comparing the recruitment success of intertidal mussels. We hypothesised that mussel recruitment and early growth are dictated by the quality of habitat offered by conspecifics adults. We used a unique experimental arena on the south coast of South Africa, where Mytilus galloprovincialis and two lineages of Perna perna co-exist. Treatments were based on the translocation of individuals of M. galloprovincialis, western- and eastern lineage of P. perna to a single site, where artificial beds were created and sampled monthly over one year. Recruit's number, their sizes and growth were greater within beds of the western lineage of Perna than eastern lineage or Mytilus beds. The results clearly demonstrate that the quality of settlement habitat offered by adult beds differs among adult lineages/species and affects rates of settlement and the early growth of recruits. This effect extends to the intraspecific level; we found greater differences in density and growth of recruits between lineages of Perna than between either lineage and M. galloprovincialis.
- Foul-weather friends: Modelling thermal stress mitigation by symbiotic endolithic microbes in a changing environmentPublication . Zardi, Gerardo I.; Monsinjon, Jonathan R.; McQuaid, Christopher D.; Seuront, Laurent; Orostica, Mauricio; Want, Andrew; Firth, Louise B.; Nicastro, KatyTemperature extremes are predicted to intensify with climate change. These extremes are rapidly emerging as a powerful driver of species distributional changes with the capacity to disrupt the functioning and provision of services of entire ecosystems, particularly when they challenge ecosystem engineers. The subsequent search for a robust framework to forecast the consequences of these changes mostly ignores within-species variation in thermal sensitivity. Such variation can be intrinsic, but can also reflect species interactions. Intertidal mussels are important ecosystem engineers that host symbiotic endoliths in their shells. These endoliths unexpectedly act as conditionally beneficial parasites that enhance the host's resistance to intense heat stress. To understand how this relationship may be altered under environmental change, we examined the conditions under which it becomes advantageous by reducing body temperature. We deployed biomimetic sensors (robomussels), built using shells of mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) that were or were not infested by endoliths, at nine European locations spanning a temperature gradient across 22 degrees of latitude (Orkney, Scotland to the Algarve, Portugal). Daily wind speed and solar radiation explained the maximum variation in the difference in temperature between infested and non-infested robomussels; the largest difference occurred under low wind speed and high solar radiation. From the robomussel data, we inferred body temperature differences between infested and non-infested mussels during known heatwaves that induced mass mortality of the mussel Mytilus edulis along the coast of the English Channel in summer 2018 to quantify the thermal advantage of endolith infestation during temperature extremes. Under these conditions, endoliths provided thermal buffering of between 1.7 degrees C and 4.8 degrees C. Our results strongly suggest that sustainability of intertidal mussel beds will increasingly depend on the thermal buffering provided by endoliths. More generally, this work shows that biomimetic models indicate that within-species thermal sensitivity to global warming can be modulated by species interactions, using an intertidal host-symbiont relationship as an example.
- Symbiotic endolithic microbes reduce host vulnerability to an unprecedented heatwavePublication . Zardi, Gerardo; Monsinjon, Jonathan R.; Seuront, Laurent; Spilmont, Nicolas; McQuaid, Christopher D.; Nicastro, KatyHeatwaves are increasingly severe and frequent, posing significant threats to ecosystems and human well-being. Characterised by high thermal variability, intertidal communities are particularly vulnerable to heat stress. Microbial endolithic communities that are found in marine calcifying organisms have been shown to induce shell erosion that alters shell surface colour, lowering body temperatures and increasing survival rates. Here, we investigate how the symbiotic relationship between endolithic microbes and the blue intertidal mussel Mytilus edulis mitigates thermal stress during the unprecedented 2022 atmospheric heatwave in the English Channel. Microbial infestation of the shell significantly enhanced mussel survival, particularly higher on the shore where thermal stress was greater. Using data from biomimetic temperature loggers, we predicted the expected thermal buffer and observed differences up to 3.2 °C between individuals with and without symbionts under the known conditions of the heat wave-induced mortality event. The ecological implications extend beyond individual mussels, affecting the reef-building capacity of mussels, with potential cascading effects for local biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and coastal defence. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding small-scale biotic interactions during extreme climate events and provide insights into the dynamic nature of the endolith-mussel symbiosis along a parasitic-mutualistic continuum influenced by abiotic factors.
- Weather and topography regulate the benefit of a conditionally helpful parasitePublication . Monsinjon, Jonathan R.; McQuaid, Christopher D.; Nicastro, Katy; Seuront, Laurent; Oróstica, Mauricio H.; Zardi, Gerardo I.Heat-induced mass mortalities involving ecosystem engineers may have long-lasting detrimental effects at the community level, eliminating the ecosystem services they provide. Intertidal mussels are ecologically and economically valuable with some populations facing unprecedented heat-induced mass mortalities. Critically, mussels are also frequently infested by endolithic parasites that modify shell albedo, hence reducing overheating and mortality rates under heat stress. Using a biophysical model, we explored the topographical and meteorological conditions under which endolithically driven thermal buffering becomes critical to survival. Based on meteorological data from a global climate analysis, we modelled body temperatures of infested and non-infested mussels over the last decade (2010-2020) at nine sites spread across c. 20 degrees of latitude. We show that thermal buffering is enhanced where and when heat stress is greatest, that is, on sun-exposed surfaces under high solar radiation and high air temperature. These results suggest that new co-evolutionary pathways are likely to open for these symbiotic organisms as climate continues to change, potentially tipping the balance of the relationship from a parasitic to a more mutualistic one. However, endolithically driven reductions in body temperatures can also occur at or below optimal temperatures, thereby reducing the host's metabolic rates and making the interplay of positive and negative effects complex. In parallel, we hindcasted body temperatures using empirical data from nearby weather stations and found that predictions were very similar with those obtained from two global climate reanalyses (i.e. NCEP-DOE Reanalysis 2 and ECMWF Reanalysis v5). This result holds great promise for modelling the distribution of terrestrial ectotherms at ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales, as it suggests we can reasonably bypass the practical issues associated with weather stations. For intertidal ectotherms, however, the challenge will be incorporating body temperatures over the full tidal cycle.