The importance of local settings: within-year variability in seawater temperature at South Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula

PeerJ

article

César A. Cárdenas¹  Marcelo González-Aravena¹  Pamela A. Santibañez¹ 

[1] Departamento Científico, Instituto Antártico Chileno

关键词: Antarctica;    Climate change;    WAP;    Benthic organisms;    Increased seawater temperature;    Environmental variability;    Short-term variability;    Stenothermic;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.4289

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has undergone significant changes in air and seawater temperatures during the last 50 years. Although highly stenotherm Antarctic organisms are expected to be severely affected by the increase of seawater temperature, high-resolution datasets of seawater temperature within coastal areas of the WAP (where diverse marine communities have been reported) are not commonly available. Here we report on within-year (2016–2017) variation in seawater temperature at three sites on Doumer Island, Palmer Archipelago, WAP. Within a year, Antarctic organisms in South Bay were exposed to water temperatures in excess of 2 °C for more than 25 days and 2.5 °C for more than 10 days. We recorded a temperature range between −1.7° to 3.0 °C. Warming of seawater temperature was 3.75 times faster after October 2016 than it was before October. Results from this study indicate that organisms at South Bay are already exposed to temperatures that are being used in experimental studies to evaluate physiological responses to thermal stress in WAP organisms. Continuous measurements of short to long-term variability in seawater temperature provides important information for parametrizing meaningful experimental treatments that aim to assess the local effects of environmental variation on Antarctic organisms under future climate scenarios.

【 授权许可】

CC BY