CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, 4485-661, Portugal.
Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da, Universidade do Porto, R. Campo Alegre, s/n, Porto, 4169-007, Portugal.
Glob Chang Biol. 2016 Jan;22(1):254-63. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13115. Epub 2015 Nov 3.
This study examines the importance of thermal refugia along the majority of the geographical range of a key intertidal species (Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758) on the Atlantic coast of Europe. We asked whether differences between sun-exposed and shaded microhabitats were responsible for differences in physiological stress and ecological performance and examined the availability of refugia near equatorial range limits. Thermal differences between sun-exposed and shaded microhabitats are consistently associated with differences in physiological performance, and the frequency of occurrence of high temperatures is most probably limiting the maximum population densities supported at any given place. Topographical complexity provides thermal refugia throughout most of the distribution range, although towards the equatorial edges the magnitude of the amelioration provided by shaded microhabitats is largely reduced. Importantly, the limiting effects of temperature, rather than being related to latitude, seem to be tightly associated with microsite variability, which therefore is likely to have profound effects on the way local populations (and consequently species) respond to climatic changes.
本研究考察了在欧洲大西洋沿岸，一种关键的潮间带物种（Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758）的大部分地理分布范围内，热避难所的重要性。我们询问了阳光照射和阴影微生境之间的差异是否导致了生理压力和生态表现的差异，并研究了近赤道范围限制的避难所的可用性。阳光照射和阴影微生境之间的热差异与生理表现的差异密切相关，高温出现的频率很可能限制了在任何给定地点支持的最大种群密度。地形复杂性在分布范围的大部分地区提供了热避难所，尽管在赤道边缘，阴影微生境提供的缓解程度大大降低。重要的是，温度的限制作用与纬度无关，而与微生境的可变性密切相关，因此，这很可能对当地种群（进而对物种）对气候变化的反应方式产生深远影响。
