Brezo Martinez

King Juan Carlos University | URJC · Biology and Geology

Aim Climate change has profound effects on species' distributions, and it is crucial to understand how well physiological limits correspond to distribution patterns to provide realistic estimations of future range shifts and/or extinctions. Seaweeds are foundation species of global coastal ecosystems, and sea surface temperature is a main predictor...

Understanding how temperature determines the distribution of life is necessary to assess species' sensitivities to contemporary climate change. Here, we test the importance of temperature in limiting the geographic ranges of ectotherms by comparing the temperatures and areas that species occupy to the temperatures and areas species could potentiall...

Understanding how temperature determines the distribution of life is necessary to assess species’ sensitivities to contemporary climate change. Here we test the importance of temperature in limiting the geographic ranges of ectotherms by comparing the temperatures and areas that species occupy to the temperatures and areas species could potentially...

Aim Global warming is affecting the distribution of species worldwide, but the level of adaptation of edge populations to warmer temperatures remains an open question. Here, we assess the thermal tolerance of populations of two habitat‐forming seaweeds along their latitudinal range, using thermal niche unfilling to assess their resilience to global...

Drastic losses of kelp forest habitat have already occurred in the southern part of the OSPAR area with significant declines at several locations elsewhere. Considering the sensitivity of this complex and highly productive habitat to cumulative effects of multiple pressures, and the increasing threat posed by climate change, the nominated kelp fore...

This Background Document on Kelp Forest habitat has been developed by OSPAR following the inclusion of this habitat on the OSPAR List of threatened and/or declining species and habitats (OSPAR Agreement 2008-6). The inclusion of the feature on the list was supported by an analysis against the Texel-Faial criteria (OSPAR Agreement 2019-03), as prese...

Understanding how species’ thermal limits have evolved across the tree of life is central to predicting species’ responses to climate change. Here, using experimentally-derived estimates of thermal tolerance limits for over 2000 terrestrial and aquatic species, we show that most of the variation in thermal tolerance can be attributed to a combinati...

In the current scenario of climate change characterized by a generalized warming, many species are facing local extinctions in areas with conditions near their thermal tolerance threshold. At present, the southern limit of the geographical distribution of several habitat-forming algae of cold-temperate affinities is located in the Northwest Iberian...

Climate change causes shifts in the geographical distribution boundaries of many organisms. Modelling techniques predict the distribution of species by relating climatic and physical factors with species' presence records, including potential extinction areas and new potential areas of colonization, under predicted climatic scenarios. In this study...

Correlative species distribution modelling is a widely used method to predict potential species ranges but can suffer from limitations in integrating species’ fundamental niches. Therefore, they might underestimate suitable ranges, but including physiological information can improve accuracy of predictions and help identify mechanisms of e.g. range...

Canopy-forming macroalgae recently experienced a worldwide decline. This is relevant, because canopies sustain complex food webs in temperate coasts. We assessed the die-back of the canopy-forming alga Fucus serratus in N Spain, at its warm distributional range boundary, and its effects on associated assemblages. We combined long-term descriptive s...

Climate change is altering species distributions worldwide. Particularly, global warming is driving range contractions and expansions of tropical species, such as corals. The use of climatic projections, via species distribution models to predict species distributional shifts, can identify threaten species and help to set priority areas of conserva...

Due to its year-round accessibility and excellent on-site infrastructure, Kongsfjorden and the Ny-Ålesund Research and Monitoring Facility have become established as a primary location to study the impact of environmental change on Arctic coastal ecosystems. Due to its location right at the interface of Arctic and Atlantic oceanic regimes, Kongsfjo...

Global warming is driving shifts in the geographical distribution of seaweeds, such as the contraction of the Southern limit of cold-temperate Atlantic macroalgae, including the foundation intertidal fucoid Fucus serratus. However, the ecophysiological mechanisms explaining the decline of seaweeds is not fully understood. In vivo chlorophyll a fluo...

Canopy-forming seaweeds sustain critical ecosystem services in coastal habitats. Around the world, many of these seaweeds are suffering strong declines, mainly attributed to the progressive increase in sea surface temperature, in combination with other stressors due to current global changes. The southernmost part of the NE Atlantic is among those...

Although the hydrocoral Millepora alcicornis is a prominent and ecologically relevant amphi-Atlantic reef builder, little attention has been given to its endosymbionts which are also involved in the survival and adaptation success of the species in different environments. In this study, we resolve the genetic relationships between M. alcicornis and...

The red alga Gelidium corneum is a dominant foundation species in the south-eastern Bay of Biscay, where a decline in its populations has been documented in the few last decades. We investigated the ecophysiological responses of G. corneum to different light conditions by means of an in situ transplant experiment. We found that the stress response...

Aim Predicting species distributional shifts in future climate scenarios representing conditions that do not exist in the current world is a challenge. Species distribution models may result in misrepresented projections for species living in extreme conditions if based on truncated response functions. Model extrapolation may not detect declines th...

Aim Understanding the relative importance of climatic and non‐climatic distribution drivers for co‐occurring, functionally similar species is required to assess potential consequences of climate change. This understanding is, however, lacking for most ecosystems. We address this knowledge gap and forecast changes in distribution for habitat‐forming...

Poor physiological acclimatization to climate change has led to shifts in the distributional ranges of various species and to biodiversity loss. However, evidence also suggests the relevance of non-climatic physical factors, such as light, and biotic factors, which may act in interactive or additive way. We used a mechanistic approach to evaluate t...

Combined effect of acidification and sea warming derived from future conditions of Climate Change have been little investigated in marine photoautotrophs, especially on sensitive organisms such as calcifying macroalgae. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the interactive effects of acidification and increased temperatures on the two Brazi...

How climate affects species distributions is a longstanding question receiving renewed interest owing to the need to predict the impacts of global warming on biodiversity. Is climate change forcing species to live near their critical thermal limits? Are these limits likely to change through natural selection? These and other important questions can...

The loss of marine foundation species, in particular kelps at temperate latitudes, has been linked to climatic drivers and co‐occurring human perturbations. Ocean temperature and nutrients typically covary over local and regional scales and play a crucial role on kelp dynamics. Examining their independent and interactive effects on kelp physiologic...

Partitioning the effects of herbivory on different life stages of primary producers is key to understanding the population-wide consequences of herbivory. We assessed the performance of microscopic (MiS <1 mm) juveniles, macroscopic (MaS) juveniles and adult kelp (Laminaria ochroleuca) under contrasting herbivory regimes through a herbivore exclusi...

Global warming and ocean acidification are increasingly affecting coastal ecosystems, with impacts that vary regionally depending upon local biogeography. Ocean acidification drives shifts in seaweed community dominance that depend on interactions with other factors such as light and nutrients. In this study, we investigated the photophysiological...

Ocean acidification increases the amount of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) available in seawater which can benefit photosynthesis in those algae that are currently carbon limited, leading to shifts in the structure and function of seaweed communities. Recent studies have shown that ocean acidification-driven shifts in seaweed community dominance...

Kelps are one of the most economically and ecologically important groups of seaweeds in the world. Most kelps are confined to cold temperate regions, and northern Spain is the southern distribution limit of many species in Europe. As the supply from wild harvest cannot meet increasing current and future demands, methods to successfully cultivate ke...

Neste artigo abórdanse algunhas das ameazas actuais e potencias que poden afectar as comunidades de macroalgas en Galiza, dando exemplo das especies ou comunidades afectadas. As macroalgas como organismos bentónicos sésiles teñen unha capacidade moi limitada para responder a estes cambios, adaptándose ou migrando cara a outras áreas; polo que, dada...

The latitudinal distribution of species is primarily driven by physical factors, particularly temperature. However, several studies suggest the importance of non-climatic physical stressors, such as irradiance, which may interact synergistically with temperature as unexpected de leterious effects or, alternatively, as additive factors. We performed...

Las macroalgas marinas son los principales productores primarios de las zonas rocosas del litoral Atlántico. Las especies dominantes que forman dosel, algas pardas como las Fucales intermareales y las Laminariales sublitorales, así como algas rojas como las del género Gelidium y Chondrus crispus configuran en la Península Ibérica y en las Islas Can...

Ocean acidification is expected to be detrimental to many calcified algae but beneficial to those non-calcified species that are able to capitalize on increased carbon availability for photosynthesis. In our study, individuals of the habitat forming fucoid Cystoseira tamariscifolia (Hudson) Papenfuss, were selected from two different collected area...

ABSTRACT: Short-term ecophysiological and biochemical responses of Cystoseira tamariscifolia and Ellisolandia elongata to changes in solar irradiance and nutrient levels were analyzed in situ in oligotrophic coastal waters by transferring macroalgae collected at 0.5 and 2.0 m depth and exposing them to 2 irradiance levels (100 and 70% of surface ir...

ABSTRACT: Previous studies of the impact of increased CO2 on macroalgae have mainly been done in laboratories or mesocosm systems, placing organisms under both artificial light and seawater conditions. In this study, macroalgae were incubated in situ in UV-transparent cylinders under conditions similar to the external environment. This system was t...

Los bosques de grandes algas marinas son un elemento común a lo largo de nuestras costas atlánticas. Sin embargo, desde hace unos años se ha venido registrando un declive en estas peculiares formaciones sumergidas. Parte del problema puede atribuirse al aumento de la temperatura del mar, un rasgo más del cambio global en el que estamos inmersos.

Recent shifts in the distribution and abundance of marine macroalgae in the northern Iberian Peninsula and Canarias in response to climate change

Kelps (large brown seaweeds) are conspicuous elements of the Portuguese coast, although kelp abundance is declining, especially at central and southern Portugal. While many studies point out increased seawater temperature as the main factor explaining kelp decline, little attention has been given to top-down (predatory) influences. Through in situ...

Species distribution models (SDM) are a useful tool for predicting species range shifts in response to global warming. However, they do not explore the mechanisms underlying biological processes, making it difficult to predict shifts outside the environmental gradient where the model was trained. In this study, we combine correlative SDMs and knowl...

The Cantabrian coast is an area of special biogeographical interest because the existence of a marked longitudinal gradient, mainly related to the sea surface temperature (SST) and the intensity and frequency of upwellings. Since the late 19th Century, there is scientific evidence on the existence of fluctuating expansion-retraction periods of cert...

Climate change has led to alterations in assemblage composition. Species of temperate macroalgae at their southern limits in the Iberian Peninsula have shown shifts in geographical range and a decline in abundance ultimately related to climate, but with the proximate factors largely unknown. We performed manipulative experiments to compare physiolo...

Saccharina latissima is an economically and ecologically important native kelp. As its limited supply from wild stock cannot meet increasing current and future demands, methods for its cultivation in the ocean need to be developed. This kelp is now beginning to be farmed off the Atlantic coast of Spain using a regular method similar to the “forced...

Geographical range shifts of two canopy-forming seaweeds, Himanthalia elongata (L.) S.F. Gray and Fucus serratus L. were investigated at their southern range boundary in Northern Spain from the end of nineteenth century to 2009. Given the good dispersal abilities of H. elongata and its short life-span, we hypothesize that this species will track en...

Cystoseira tamariscifolia (Hudson) Papenfuss (Phaeophyceae, Fucales) and Ellisolandia elongata (Ellis & Solander) Hind & Saunders (Florideophyceae, Corallinales) are two important species in intertidal habitats of Mediterranean rocky-shores (Algarra & Niell 1987, Häder et al. 1997, Gómez-Garreta et al. 2001, Figueroa & Gómez 2001). The aim this stu...

Cystoseira tamariscifolia (Hudson) Papenfuss (Phaeophyceae, Fucales) and Ellisolandia elongata (Ellis & Solander) Hind & Saunders (Florideophyceae, Corallinales) are two important species in intertidal habitats of Mediterranean rocky-shores (Algarra & Niell 1987, Häder et al. 1997, Gómez-Garreta et al. 2001, Figueroa & Gómez 2001). The aim this stu...

ECOPHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF DOMINANT ROCK-SHORE MACROALGAE TO CHANGES IN IRRADIANCE AND NUTRIENT SUPPLY IN SOUTHERN IBERIAN PENINSULA

Aim Because intertidal organisms often live close to their physiological tolerance limits, they are potentially sensitive indicators of climate‐driven changes in the environment. The goals of this study were to assess the effect of climatic and non‐climatic factors on the geographical distribution of intertidal macroalgae, and to predict future dis...

Climate change is driving species range shifts worldwide. However, physiological responses related to distributional changes are not fully understood. Oceanogra-phers have reported an increase in ocean temperature in the northwest Iberian Peninsula that is potentially related to the decline in some cold-temperate intertidal macroalgae in the Cantab...

An important life history trait of macroalgae species is the physiological ability to cope with nutrient limiting conditions, which seasonally occur in temperate coasts while other environmental factors are adequate (e.g., sufficient light). Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) uptake kinetics and field growth limitation were investigated in the perenni...

In temperate areas, lack of nutrients during summer, particularly N, is the main limiting factor of macroalgal growth. However, Nemo lion helminthoides (Velley) Batters in northern Spain is conspicuous in the field during this time (from mid-May to late-July). Therefore, we assumed that its nutrient requirements are low enough to be sustained by tr...

Understanding the factors determining geographic ranges and range shifts of species is a central issue in ecology and evolutionary biology. Research addressing distributional borders from a demographic perspective frequently focused on reproductive traits, finding reproduction reductions or failure at the range margin. However, some of the observed...

The effects of increased photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), UV radiation (UVR), and nutrient supply on photosynthetic activity, pigment content, C:N ratio and biomass yield were studied in tank cultivated Gracilaria conferta (Rhodophyta). Electron transport rate (ETR) and biliprotein content were higher under high nutrient supply (HNS), obtaine...

The effects of nutrient supply on photosynthesis (estimated as chlorophyll fluorescence), chlorophyll content, biomass yield and proximate chemical composition of tank cultivated Ulva lactuca L. (Chlorophyta) were evaluated. To assess the effect of nutrient supply on resistance capacity against short-term stress, algae grown in high nutrient supply...

Thallus absorptance, daily courses of maximal quantum yields of chlorophyll fluorescence of photosystem II (F(v)/F(m)) and electron transport rates (ETR) were determined in 3 macroalgae (Hypnea spinella, Rhodophyta; Sargassum vulgare, Phaeophyta; and Ulva lactuca, Chlorophyta) collected from a low nutrient supply (LNS) ecosystem (Red Sea, Gulf of A...

Light has been identified as one of the main factors affecting seaweed ecophysiology. We investigated the dependence of nutrient metabolism on sun and shade light conditions and whether episodes of upwelling of nutrient-rich subsuperficial water could reduce the summer nutrient limitation driving physiological changes in Palmaria palmata (L.) Kuntz...

Macroalgae possess several photoprotection mechanisms, including xanthophyll cycles. Among these cycles, the VAZ (violaxanthin–anteraxanthin–zeaxanthin) cycle controls the interconversion of epoxidated xanthophyll (V) to de-epoxidated forms anteraxanthin and zeaxanthin. This conversion modulates the amount of excess energy that it is dissipated as...

The aim of this study was to adapt the techniques of rope culture to the cultivation of the edible seaweed Palmaria palmata on the northern Spanish coast. Vertical rope rafts were installed in two locations. Fronds were attached to 4-mm polyethylene ropes that were suspended from a steel frame secured in position using weights and buoys. In the fir...

Limpets were excluded from barnacle-dominated areas in 2 semi-exposed localities on the shore of northern Spain. We tested the hypotheses that a macroalgal canopy would develop and barnacle cover would decrease in exclusion quadrats. Spatial replication considered localities and sites within localities, while temporal replication considered 2 seaso...

The N and P uptake responses were studied in a northern Spanish population of the edible red seaweed Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Kuntze. The fronds were incubated at different concentrations, and the nutrient depletion in the medium was measured at successive times to calculate uptake rates. Palmaria palmata uptake response was biphasic and nonsatu...

spatial variation in the recruitment of the intertidal barnacles Chthamalus montagui and Chthamalus stellatus was examined over an European scale. The study was carried out using standardised protocols at a series of locations. The five locations chosen (SW Ireland, NW Spain, SW Portugal and NW and NE Italy) span a large part of the range of these...

The annual variation of major nitrogen pools, phosphorus, carbon, ash, and thallus water content in relation to seasonal environmental changes was studied in two northern Spanish populations of the edible seaweed Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Kuntze. Observed patterns were investigated using Spearman rank order correlation coefficients. There were si...

The film of microalgae and macroalgal propagules which coats intertidal rocks is the main food resource of limpets, the dominant grazers on exposed shores of north-west Europe. Spatial and temporal variability in feeding activity of limpets and abundance of microalgae were examined at mid-tide level across a European gradient from the Isle of Man i...