Climate-Driven Range Extension of Amphistegina (Protista, Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

Species-range expansions are a predicted and realized consequence of global climate change. Climate warming and the poleward widening of the tropical belt have induced range shifts in a variety of marine and terrestrial species. Range expansions may have broad implications on native biota and ecosystem functioning as shifting species may perturb recipient communities. Larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera constitute ubiquitous and prominent components of shallow water ecosystems, and range shifts of these important protists are likely to trigger changes in ecosystem functioning. We have used historical and newly acquired occurrence records to compute current range shifts of Amphistegina spp., a larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera, along the eastern coastline of Africa and compare them to analogous range shifts currently observed in the Mediterranean Sea. The study provides new evidence that amphisteginid foraminifera are rapidly progressing southwestward, closely approaching Port Edward (South Africa) at 31°S. To project future species distributions, we applied a species distribution model (SDM) based on ecological niche constraints of current distribution ranges. Our model indicates that further warming is likely to cause a continued range extension, and predicts dispersal along nearly the entire southeastern coast of Africa. The average rates of amphisteginid range shift were computed between 8 and 2.7 km year−1, and are projected to lead to a total southward range expansion of 267 km, or 2.4° latitude, in the year 2100. Our results corroborate findings from the fossil record that some larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera cope well with rising water temperatures and are beneficiaries of global climate change.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054443&type=printable

Climate-Driven Range Extension of Amphistegina (Protista, Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges

Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges. PLoS ONE 8(2): e54443. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054443 Climate-Driven Range Extension of Amphistegina (Protista, Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges Martin R. Langer 0 Anna E. Weinmann 0 Stefan Lo tters 0 Joan M. Bernhard 0 Dennis Ro dder 0 Purificacio n Lo pez-Garca, Universite Paris Sud, France 0 1 Steinmann Institut f u r Geologie, Mineralogie und Pala ontologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universita t, Bonn, Germany, 2 Biogeography Department, Universita t Trier , Trier, Germany , 3 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America , 4 Zoologisches Forschungsmusem Alexander Koenig, Museum Koenig, Bonn , Germany Species-range expansions are a predicted and realized consequence of global climate change. Climate warming and the poleward widening of the tropical belt have induced range shifts in a variety of marine and terrestrial species. Range expansions may have broad implications on native biota and ecosystem functioning as shifting species may perturb recipient communities. Larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera constitute ubiquitous and prominent components of shallow water ecosystems, and range shifts of these important protists are likely to trigger changes in ecosystem functioning. We have used historical and newly acquired occurrence records to compute current range shifts of Amphistegina spp., a larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera, along the eastern coastline of Africa and compare them to analogous range shifts currently observed in the Mediterranean Sea. The study provides new evidence that amphisteginid foraminifera are rapidly progressing southwestward, closely approaching Port Edward (South Africa) at 31uS. To project future species distributions, we applied a species distribution model (SDM) based on ecological niche constraints of current distribution ranges. Our model indicates that further warming is likely to cause a continued range extension, and predicts dispersal along nearly the entire southeastern coast of Africa. The average rates of amphisteginid range shift were computed between 8 and 2.7 km year21, and are projected to lead to a total southward range expansion of 267 km, or 2.4u latitude, in the year 2100. Our results corroborate findings from the fossil record that some larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera cope well with rising water temperatures and are beneficiaries of global climate change. - Funding: This work was supported by grants from the German Science Foundation (DFG; www.dfg.de) to ML and SL (LA 884/10-1, LA 884/5-1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Sea surface temperature is a key environmental predictor that affects the biogeographic distribution of many organisms. Global climate change is likely to alter the range of areas potentially suitable for habitation [14]. Among the predicted effects of rising temperature is the range expansion of species into areas where they previously did not exist [58]. The expansion of species ranges along their cooler boundaries appears to be a prominent consequence of the global warming trend [7,9]. A rapidly increasing number of studies have shown fingerprints of recent climate-driven changes in various biological systems. This includes range shifts of species towards higher latitudes, higher elevation and earlier springtime phenologies [912]. To date, however, only a limited number of studies have addressed rates of range shifts in marine biotas [13]. Our studies concern the distribution and biogeographic range expansion of unicellular, larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera in modern oceans [4,14]. Larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera have a circum-tropical distribution and are indicative of warm tropical and subtropical waters [14,15]. Temperature has long been considered as the primary factor regulating their latitudinal distribution [14]. For the majority of these foraminifera, the lower temperature limit is 18 to 20uC [14]. Relatively low temperatures are tolerated by species of the genus Amphistegina and their distributional range is currently delimited by the 13.8u winter isotherm [4,16,17]. Among the larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera, amphisteginids are of particular interest because they display the widest latitudinal ranges in all oceans [14]. Today, amphisteginids have been found as far as 40u North and 31u South [14,18]. They are among the most conspicuous and ubiquitous foraminifera on coral reefs and tropical carbonate shelves [14], where they often have been referred to as living sands [19]. As key carbonate producers [2022], amphisteginids contribute significantly to carbonate substrate stability, growth of reefal structures, and habitat formation [2024]. Recent s (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054443&type=printable

Martin R. Langer, Anna E. Weinmann, Stefan Lötters, Joan M. Bernhard, Dennis Rödder. Climate-Driven Range Extension of Amphistegina (Protista, Foraminiferida): Models of Current and Predicted Future Ranges, PLOS ONE, 2013, 2, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054443