Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 12;9(1):4198. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40944-5.
The Eastern Mediterranean is experiencing a large-scale invasion of alien tropical species from the Red Sea. This "Lessepsian invasion" began with the opening of the Suez Canal and is promoted by the ongoing oceanic warming. The environmental differences between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean act as a buffer allowing the invasion of certain species. This provides an opportunity to study the differences in temperature sensitivity between two sibling species of the cosmopolitian foraminifera Amphistegina. Both species are very common in the Red Sea. Whilest, only one is a successful invader and the other is absent in the Eastern Mediterranean. Here we show that the two species are different in their temperature sensitivity, which explains their selective invasion into the Mediterranean. These differences demonstrate that in respect to climate change resilient marine species can be distinguished by their ability to compensate for temperature changes by adjusting their physiological performance and by having tolerance to a wider temperature range. Moreover, we demonstrate that selective filtering mechanisms during invasion can prefer species that are more resilient to colder rather than expected warmer temperatures.
东地中海正经历着来自红海的大规模热带外来物种入侵。这种“勒塞普斯入侵”始于苏伊士运河的开通，并受到海洋持续变暖的推动。红海和地中海之间的环境差异起到了缓冲作用，允许某些物种入侵。这为研究两种有亲缘关系的世界性有孔虫 Amphistegina 在温度敏感性上的差异提供了机会。这两个物种在红海都很常见。然而，只有一种是成功的入侵物种，而另一种在东地中海则不存在。在这里，我们表明这两个物种在温度敏感性上存在差异，这解释了它们选择性地入侵地中海的原因。这些差异表明，在气候变化方面，具有弹性的海洋物种可以通过调整生理性能来补偿温度变化的能力以及对更宽温度范围的耐受性来区分。此外，我们还表明，在入侵过程中，选择性过滤机制可以偏爱对较冷而不是预期较暖温度更具弹性的物种。
