Schuster, J. M. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

Cool ocean temperatures fail to buffer the impacts of heat exposure during low tide on the behaviour and physiology of a keystone predator

Air temperatures are warming at faster rates than ocean temperatures, and this "land-sea warming contrast" may create reprieves from thermal stress by providing cool underwater refugia during extreme heat events. Here we tested the impacts of the "land-sea warming contrast" on physiology (metabolism) and behaviour (feeding) in the juvenile life stage of a keystone intertidal predator, Pisaster ochraceus, by experimentally manipulating air ([~]20, 25, 30) and water ([~]15, 20) temperatures (at independent rates) representing early summer, late summer, and heatwave conditions in Barkley Sound (British Columbia, Canada). We further made observations of air temperatures, sea surface temperatures, and Pisaster moribundity at our study location to support interpretation of our results. We predicted metabolism and feeding would increase with early and late summer temperatures, but decrease during heatwave conditions as animals surpass their thermal optimum. We observed the greatest mortality and lowest feeding in juvenile Pisaster exposed to cool ocean temperatures ([~]15) and high aerial temperatures typical of extreme heat events ([~]30). Feeding rates increased with heat stress duration, indicating animals may be compensating for elevated metabolism. Metabolic rates did not differ between air temperatures, but oxygen consumption was higher in animals with access to mussels than for Pisaster that were fasted. The highest levels of experimental and field moribundity were observed in August, indicating Pisaster may have accumulated physiological stress damage following elevated air and ocean temperatures throughout the summer. Our research implicates shifts in community dynamics due to the loss of this keystone species as air temperatures warm. Summary StatementCooler ocean temperatures, rather than creating thermal refugia, may cause physiological stress for juvenile Pisaster ochraceus exposed to warm air during low tide.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

A data-driven evaluation of Arabidopsis-centric research and the model species concept

The selection of Arabidopsis as a model organism played a pivotal role in advancing genomic science, firmly establishing the cornerstone of today s plant molecular biology. Competing frameworks to select an agricultural- or ecological-based model species, or to decentralize plant science and study a multitude of diverse species, were selected against in favor of building core knowledge in a species that would facilitate genome-enabled research that could assumedly be transferred to other plants. Here, we examine the ability of models based on Arabidopsis gene expression data to predict tissue identity in other flowering plant species. Comparing different machine learning algorithms, models trained and tested on Arabidopsis data achieved near perfect precision and recall values using the K-Nearest Neighbor method, whereas when tissue identity is predicted across the flowering plants using models trained on Arabidopsis data, precision values range from 0.69 to 0.74 and recall from 0.54 to 0.64, depending on the algorithm used. Below-ground tissue is more predictable than other tissue types, and the ability to predict tissue identity is not correlated with phylogenetic distance from Arabidopsis. This suggests that gene expression signatures rather than marker genes are more valuable to create models for tissue and cell type prediction in plants. Our data-driven results highlight that, in hindsight, the assertion that knowledge from Arabidopsis is translatable to other plants is not always true. Considering the current landscape of abundant sequencing data and computational resources, it may be prudent to reevaluate the scientific emphasis on Arabidopsis and to prioritize the exploration of plant diversity.

plant biology↗