Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA
Ecology. 2011 Mar;92(3):576-82. doi: 10.1890/10-0717.1.
Variation in physical factors, such as slope, orientation, and wind exposure, shapes thermal conditions. Variation in substrate size is common in many habitats, but its thermal consequences for organisms are not well characterized. Larger substrates should remain more thermally stable and act as thermal refuges for associated organisms during short, thermally stressful periods such as midday temperature peaks or tidal exposure. In observations and a transplant and thermal integration experiment, we found that larger rock substrates stayed cooler and facilitated greater survival of the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides in the high intertidal relative to small substrates during the hot summer months in southern New England, USA. However, in thermally benign northern New England, rock substrate size had no effect on barnacle distributions, indicating that the thermal effects of substrate size are mediated by regional climate.
物理因素（如坡度、方位和迎风面）的变化会影响热条件。在许多生境中，基底面大小的变化很常见，但它对生物的热后果还没有很好地描述。较大的基底面应该保持更稳定的温度，并在短时间内充当热避难所，例如中午温度峰值或潮汐暴露期间，为相关生物提供保护。在观察和移植及热整合实验中，我们发现，在美国新英格兰南部炎热的夏季，与小基底面相比，较大的岩石基底面在高潮带停留时间更长，温度更低，这使得藤壶 Semibalanus balanoides 有更大的生存机会。然而，在气候较温和的新英格兰北部，基底面大小对藤壶的分布没有影响，这表明基底面大小的热效应是由区域气候调节的。
