Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia.
Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2017 Dec;1(12):1846-1852. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0353-x. Epub 2017 Oct 23.
Temperature profoundly affects species' geographic ranges, but the extent to which it limits contemporary range edges has been difficult to assess from laboratory experiments of thermal tolerance. The persistence of populations depends on temperature-mediated outcomes of ecological and demographic processes across all stages of a species' life history, as well as any adaptation to local temperature regimes. We assessed the relationships between sea temperature and observed distributional ranges for 1,790 shallow-water marine species from 10 animal classes and found remarkable consistencies in trends in realized thermal limits among taxa and ocean basins, as well as general agreement with previous laboratory findings. Realized thermal niches increase from the Equator towards cold-temperate locations, despite an opposite trend in geographic range size. Species' cool distribution limits are best predicted by the magnitude of seasonality within their range, while a relatively firm thermal barrier exists on the equatorward range edge for temperate species. Our findings of consistencies in realized thermal limits indicate potential limits to adaptation among common marine species and highlight the value of realized thermal niches for predicting species' distributional dynamics in warming seas.
温度深刻影响着物种的地理分布范围，但从热耐受的实验室实验中评估其对当代分布范围边缘的限制程度一直很困难。种群的持续存在取决于物种生活史各个阶段的温度介导的生态和人口过程的结果，以及对当地温度制度的任何适应。我们评估了 10 个动物类别的 1790 种浅海水生物种的海水温度与观察到的分布范围之间的关系，发现分类群和海洋盆地之间实际热极限的趋势存在显著的一致性，并且与之前的实验室发现普遍一致。尽管地理范围大小呈相反趋势，但实现的热生态位从赤道向冷温带地区增加。物种的冷分布极限最好由其范围内季节性的幅度来预测，而对于温带物种，在赤道边缘存在相对稳定的热屏障。我们对实现的热极限的一致性的发现表明，常见海洋物种之间的适应潜力存在限制，并强调实现的热生态位在预测变暖海洋中物种分布动态方面的价值。
