Warming northward shifting southern limits of the iconic temperate seagrass (Zostera marina)

Shaochun Xu; Yu Zhang; Yi Zhou; Shuai Xu; Shidong Yue; Mingjie Liu; Xiaomei Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104755

Warming northward shifting southern limits of the iconic temperate seagrass (Zostera marina)

iScience. 2022 Jul 13;25(8):104755. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104755. eCollection 2022 Aug 19.

Authors

Shaochun Xu^{1

2

3

4

5}, Yu Zhang^{1

2

3

4

5}, Yi Zhou^{1

2

3

4

5

6}, Shuai Xu^{1

2

3

4

5}, Shidong Yue^{1

2

3

4

5}, Mingjie Liu^{1

2

3

4

5}, Xiaomei Zhang^{1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
² Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China.
³ Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
⁴ CAS Engineering Laboratory for Marine Ranching, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
⁵ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁶ Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Qingdao 266071, China.

Abstract

Global warming can shift the range edges of numerous species poleward. Here, eelgrass distribution was reinvestigated at its southern limits on the eastern coast of China, which indicated that there has been a northward shift in the southern limit of Z. marina. To determine if regional warming resulted in a northward shift in suitable eelgrass habitats, sixteen transplantations of adult eelgrass shoots and seeds at the historical southern distribution limit of eelgrass were conducted between 2016 and 2021. The results showed that high water temperatures in summer had negative effects on eelgrass growth, and directly triggered shoot mortality during 2016-2018. Under heat stress, antioxidant enzyme activity was initially increased, but then decreased under more stressful heat conditions; and the HSP70 protein and its molecular chaperone protein were highly expressed under heat stress. These results demonstrated that suitable eelgrass habitat was now located further north along the eastern coast of China.

Keywords: Aquaculture; Ecology; Environmental science.