Temperature drives seagrass recovery across the Western North Atlantic

Smulders, F.; Campbell, J.; Altieri, A.; Armitage, A.; Bakker, E.; Barry, S.; Becker, T.; Bethel, E.; Douglass, J.; van Duijnhoven, H.; de Fouw, J.; Frazer, T.; Glazner, R.; Goeke, J.; Gort, G.; Heck, K.; Kramer, O.; van de Leemput, I.; Manuel, S.; Martin, C.; Martinez Lopez, I.; McDonald, A.; Munson, C.; O'Shea, O.; Paul, V.; Reynolds, L.; Rhoades, K.; Rodriguez Bravo, L.; Sang, A.; Sawall, Y.; Smith, K.; Thompson, J.; van Tussenbroek, B.; Wied, W.; Christianen, M.

doi:10.1101/2024.07.31.605761

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2024.07.31.605761

Temperature drives seagrass recovery across the Western North Atlantic

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Abstract

Climate-driven shifts in herbivores, temperature and nutrient runoff threaten coastal ecosystem resilience. However, our understanding of ecological resilience, particularly for foundation species, remains limited due to a rarity of field experiments that are conducted across appropriate spatial and temporal scales and that investigate multiple stressors. This study aimed to evaluate the resilience of a widespread tropical marine plant (turtlegrass) to disturbances across its geographic range and how this is impacted by environmental gradients in (a)biotic factors. We assessed the resilience (i.e. recovery) of turtlegrass to a simulated disturbance (complete above- and belowground biomass removal) over a year. Contrary to temperate studies, higher temperature generally enhanced seagrass recovery. While nutrients and light availability had minimal impact, combined high levels of nutrients and herbivore grazing (meso and megaherbivore) reduced aboveground recovery. Our results suggest that the resilience of some tropical species, especially in cooler subtropical waters, may initially increase with warming.

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Smulders, F., Campbell, J., Altieri, A., Armitage, A., Bakker, E., Barry, S., Becker, T., Bethel, E., Douglass, J., van Duijnhoven, H., de Fouw, J., Frazer, T., Glazner, R., Goeke, J., Gort, G., Heck, K., Kramer, O., van de Leemput, I., Manuel, S., Martin, C., Martinez Lopez, I., McDonald, A., Munson, C., O'Shea, O., Paul, V., Reynolds, L., Rhoades, K., Rodriguez Bravo, L., Sang, A., Sawall, Y., Smith, K., Thompson, J., van Tussenbroek, B., Wied, W., Christianen, M.. 2024-07-31. Temperature drives seagrass recovery across the Western North Atlantic. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.31.605761

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