Dataset Information

Recruitment and Patch Establishment by Seed in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica: Importance and Conservation Implications.

ABSTRACT: Seagrasses are declining globally, and deeper understanding is needed on the recruitment potential and distribution of new populations for many threatened species to support conservation planning in the face of climate change. Recruitment of Posidonia oceanica, a threatened seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean, has long been considered rare due to infrequent flowering, but mounting evidence demonstrates that the species is responding to a changing climate through greater reproductive effort. Due to the fragmentary information on recruit occurrence and distribution, little is known about reproductive success in the species and its contribution to persistence. We assembled P. oceanica recruitment data from published and unpublished sources, including our own, to examine the frequency and extent of recruitment events (establishment of seedlings in a site), seedling growth potential and habitat characteristics at recruitment sites. Results show that at least one recruitment event has occurred about every 3 years, and 18 localities were colonized at least one time since the first seedling record in 1986. Notably, consistently high seedling inputs were observed in four localities of the Western Mediterranean. Seedlings established mainly on unoccupied substrate areas along the coasts of islands, in sheltered sites and at shallower depths (<3 m) than the upper limit of adjacent P. oceanica meadows. Seedling establishment occurred more frequently on rocky than on sandy substrate, and rarely on dead "matte" or meadows of the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa. The chance of colonization success on rock was two times higher than on sand. Our 11 years of observations have allowed for the first time the documentation of the formation and development of patches by P. oceanica seed. These findings contradict the historical assumption that sexual recruitment is rare and usually unsuccessful for P. oceanica, and highlight the potential importance of recruitment for the long-term persistence and adaptation of the species to sea level rise predicted in the next century in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, management actions have mainly focused on established meadows, ignoring the presence of recruits in outside areas. Therefore, it will be useful to identify and consider regeneration sites in designing future management strategies to improve seagrass conservation effectiveness.

SUBMITTER: Balestri E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5472673 | biostudies-other | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Publications

Recruitment and Patch Establishment by Seed in the Seagrass <i>Posidonia oceanica</i>: Importance and Conservation Implications.

Balestri Elena E Vallerini Flavia F Lardicci Claudio C

Frontiers in plant science 20170616

Seagrasses are declining globally, and deeper understanding is needed on the recruitment potential and distribution of new populations for many threatened species to support conservation planning in the face of climate change. Recruitment of <i>Posidonia oceanica</i>, a threatened seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean, has long been considered rare due to infrequent flowering, but mounting evidence demonstrates that the species is responding to a changing climate through greater reproductive eff ...[more]

PMID: 28670323

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Project description:The unprecedented rate of CO2 increase in our atmosphere and subsequent ocean acidification (OA) threatens coastal ecosystems. To forecast the functioning of coastal seagrass ecosystems in acidified oceans, more knowledge on the long-term adaptive capacities of seagrass species and their epibionts is needed. Therefore we studied morphological characteristics of Posidonia oceanica and the structure of its epibiont communities at a Mediterranean volcanic CO2 vent off Panarea Island (Italy) and performed a laboratory experiment to test the effect of OA on P. oceanica photosynthesis and its potential buffering capacity. At the study site east of Basiluzzo Islet, venting of CO2 gas was controlled by tides, resulting in an average pH difference of 0.1 between the vent and reference site. P. oceanica shoot and leaf density was unaffected by these levels of OA, although shorter leaves at the vent site suggest increased susceptibility to erosion, potentially by herbivores. The community of sessile epibionts differed in composition and was characterized by a higher species richness at the vent site, though net epiphytic calcium carbonate concentration was similar. These findings suggest a higher ecosystem complexity at the vent site, which may have facilitated the higher diversity of copepods in the otherwise unaffected motile epibiont community. In the laboratory experiment, P. oceanica photosynthesis increased with decreasing pHT (7.6, 6.6, 5.5), which induced an elevated pH at the leaf surfaces of up to 0.5 units compared to the ambient seawater pHT of 6.6. This suggests a temporary pH buffering in the diffusive boundary layer of leaves, which could be favorable for epibiont organisms. The results of this multispecies study contribute to understanding community-level responses and underlying processes in long-term acidified conditions. Increased replication and monitoring of physico-chemical parameters on an annual scale are, however, recommended to assure that the biological responses observed during a short period reflect long-term dynamics of these parameters.

Project description:Introduction: Gene-expression patterns and their upstream regulatory mechanisms (e.g. epigenetic) are known to modulate plant acclimatability and thus tolerance to heat stress. Within species, thermal plasticity (i.e. temperature-sensitive phenotypic plasticity) and differential thermo-tolerance are recognized among different genotypes, development stages, organs or tissues. Leaf age and lifespan have been demonstrated to strongly affect photosynthetic thermo-tolerance in terrestrial species, whereas there is no information available for marine plants. Materials and Methods: Here, we investigated how an intense warming event affects molecular and photo-physiological functions in the large-sized seagrass Posidonia oceanica, at fine spatial resolution. Plants were exposed for one week at 34°C in a controlled-mesocosm system. Subsequent variations in the expression of 12 target genes and global DNA methylation level were evaluated in three leaf-age sections (i.e. basal, medium and high) established along the longitudinal axis of youngest, young and fully mature leaves of the shoot. Targeted genes were involved in photosynthesis, chlorophyll biosynthesis, energy dissipation mechanisms, stress response and programmed cell death. Molecular analyses paralleled the assessment of pigment content and photosynthetic performance of the same leaf segments, as well as of plant growth inhibition under acute warming. Results: Our data revealed, for the first time, the presence of variable leaf age-dependent stress-induced epigenetic and gene-expression changes in seagrasses, underlying photo-physiological and growth responses to heat stress. An investment in protective responses and growth arrest was observed in immature tissues; while mature leaf sections displayed a higher ability to offset gene down-regulation, possibly through the involvement of DNA methylation changes, although heat-induced damages were visible at photo-physiological level. Discussion: Overall, mature and young leaf tissues exhibited different strategies to withstand heat stress and thus a variable thermal plasticity. This should be taken in consideration when addressing seagrass response to warming and other stressors, especially in large-sized species, where sharp age differences are present within and among leaves, and other gradients of environmental factors (e.g. light) could be at play. Molecular and physiological evaluations conducted only on adult leaf tissues, as common practice in seagrass research, could give inadequate estimates of the overall plant state, and should not be considered as a proxy for the whole shoot.

Dataset Information

Recruitment and Patch Establishment by Seed in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica: Importance and Conservation Implications.

Publications

Recruitment and Patch Establishment by Seed in the Seagrass <i>Posidonia oceanica</i>: Importance and Conservation Implications.

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