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Responses of benthic foraminifera to changes of temperature and salinity: Results from a laboratory culture experiment

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Abstract

The effects of temperature and salinity on intertidal foraminiferal community under laboratory conditions are poorly understood. We designed a two-factor crossed experiment in which foraminiferal communities were cultured at different temperatures (6, 12, and 18°C) and salinities (15, 20, 25, and 30 psu) for 10 weeks. In total, 2616 living (stained) specimens were obtained and analyzed. Foraminiferal abundance ranged from 9 to 202 individuals/10 g wet weight of sediment. The highest abundance was obtained at 12°C, 25 psu and the lowest at 6°C, 15 psu. Statistical results demonstrated that temperature affected foraminiferal community more significantly than salinity. Most foraminiferal community parameters (abundance, species richness, Margalef index, and Shannon-Wiener diversity) were significantly positively correlated to temperature, but not to salinity, whereas Pielou’s evenness was significantly negatively correlated to both temperature and salinity. The interactive effect of temperature and salinity on foraminiferal abundance was significant. In addition, with increasing temperature, the species composition shifted from hyaline Rotaliida to porcellaneous Miliolida. The abundance of dominant species (e.g., Ammonia aomoriensis, A. beccarii, and Quinqueloculina seminula) showed significant positive correlations to temperature. Our study indicated that the intertidal foraminiferal community responds sensitively and rapidly to the changes of salinity and, especially, temperature by shifting foraminiferal species composition and altering the community parameters.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the earlier version of this manuscript. The authors thank to the Jiaozhou Bay Marine Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences for sharing the voyage and providing CTD data. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41476043, 41630965 & 41830539), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA11030104), the National Program on ‘Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction’ (Grant No. GASI-03-01-03-01), the Continental Shelf Drilling Program of China (Grant No. GZH201100202), the Paul Brönnimann Foundation 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Organism Taxonomy & Phylogeny, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Shuaishuai Dong & Yanli Lei

  2. Key Laboratory of Marine Sedimentology and Environmental Geology, First Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Tiegang Li

  3. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zhimin Jian

  4. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Tiegang Li

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shuaishuai Dong, Yanli Lei & Tiegang Li

  6. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Shuaishuai Dong & Yanli Lei

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  1. Shuaishuai Dong
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Dong, S., Lei, Y., Li, T. et al. Responses of benthic foraminifera to changes of temperature and salinity: Results from a laboratory culture experiment. Sci. China Earth Sci. 62, 459–472 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9269-3

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