Normandie Université, UNICAEN, Laboratoire Biologie des Organismes et Ecosystèmes Aquatiques, UMR8067 BOREA (CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, UCBN, IRD-207), 14000, Caen, France; Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa.
Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa; Univ. Lille, CNRS, Univ. Littoral Côte d'Opale, UMR 8187 - LOG - Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences, F-59000, Lille, France; Department of Marine Resources and Energy, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8477, Japan.
J Therm Biol. 2023 Feb;112:103428. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2022.103428. Epub 2022 Dec 16.
Microbial symbionts have strong potential to mediate responses to climate change. Such modulation may be particularly important in the case of hosts that modify the physical habitat structure. By transforming the habitats, ecosystem engineers alter resource availability and modulate environmental conditions which, in turn, indirectly shape the community associated with that habitat. Endolithic cyanobacteria are known to reduce the body temperatures of infested mussels and here, we assessed whether the thermal benefits of endoliths on the intertidal reef-building mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis extends to the invertebrate community utilising mussel beds as habitat. Artificial reefs of biomimetic mussels either colonised or not colonised by microbial endoliths were used to test whether infauna species (the limpet Patella vulgata, the snail Littorina littorea and mussel recruits) in a mussel bed with symbionts experience lower body temperatures than those within a bed composed of mussels without symbionts. We found that infaunal individuals benefitted from being surrounded by mussels with symbionts, an effect that may be particularly critical during intense heat stress. Indirect effects of biotic interactions, complicate our understanding of community and ecosystem responses to climate change, especially in cases involving ecosystem engineers, and accounting for them will improve our predictions.
微生物共生体具有很强的潜力来调节对气候变化的响应。这种调节在宿主改变物理栖息地结构的情况下可能尤为重要。通过改变栖息地，生态系统工程师改变了资源的可利用性，并调节了环境条件，这反过来又间接塑造了与该栖息地相关的群落。内共生蓝细菌被认为可以降低受感染贻贝的体温，在这里，我们评估了内共生体对潮间带造礁贻贝贻贝（Mytilus galloprovincialis）的热益处是否扩展到利用贻贝床作为栖息地的无脊椎动物群落。使用生物仿生贻贝的人工礁，要么被微生物内共生体定植，要么没有被定植，以此来测试在有共生体的贻贝床中的无脊椎动物（普通帽贝、扁玉螺和贻贝幼体）的体温是否低于没有共生体的贻贝床中的体温。我们发现，无脊椎动物个体受益于被有共生体的贻贝包围，这种效应在强烈热应激期间可能特别关键。生物相互作用的间接影响使我们对群落和生态系统对气候变化的响应的理解变得复杂，特别是在涉及生态系统工程师的情况下，考虑到这些影响将提高我们的预测能力。
