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Survival of early life history stages of Arctic kelps (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard) under multifactorial global change scenarios

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Abstract

Kelps (brown algae of the order Laminariales) build highly complex and productive underwater forests and possess microscopic and macroscopic life stages. The microscopic stages (spores, gametophytes, juvenile sporophytes) are usually more sensitive to environmental stressors and may form a bottleneck for the survival of the population. Future Arctic kelp forests will be especially affected by elevated temperatures and increased sedimentation. Knowledge on grazer impact is still rudimentary. In order to investigate how global change in interaction with grazing may shape future Arctic kelp systems, we performed laboratory experiments (2 × 3 × 2 factorial design) on early life stages of the kelps Alaria esculenta, Laminaria digitata and Saccharina latissima from Arctic Kongsfjorden (Svalbard). Spores were exposed to ambient and elevated summer temperatures in combination with 3 levels of sediment and 2 levels of grazing by the limpet Margarites helicinus. The germination and formation of juvenile sporophytes were strongly inhibited in all species with increasing sediment cover, clearly showing the strongest negative effect on sporophyte development of all tested variables. Grazers interacted with temperature and sedimentation-affecting kelps in a species-specific way. They had a strong impact on the number of developing sporophytes partially counteracting the negative impact of sedimentation. We conclude that the structure of kelp communities can be shaped by abiotic and biotic variables acting on early developmental stages and that global warming has the potential to alter the strengths and direction of these effects, which may lead to future shifts in the community structure.

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Acknowledgments

This research was performed at the Ny Ålesund International Research and Monitoring Facility on Svalbard as part of the long-term project KOL 06 “The biology of Arctic benthic algae”. The authors wish to thank the diving group under the lead of Max Schwanitz for sampling the fertile macroalgae and grazers. We would also like to thank AWIPEV team 2013 and 2014 for their logistic support. Special thanks go to Michael Greenacre for substantially improving the statistical analysis of data. We would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their very constructive suggestions and their time which improved the manuscript. Many thanks go to J. Bartsch for proof reading the manuscript and correcting grammatical errors. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the priority programme “Antarctic Research with comparative investigations in Arctic ice areas” by a grant Za735/1-1 and by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.

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  1. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany

    K. Zacher, M. Bernard, I. Bartsch & C. Wiencke

  2. CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29680, Roscoff, France

    M. Bernard

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  1. K. Zacher
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  2. M. Bernard
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  3. I. Bartsch
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  4. C. Wiencke
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Correspondence to K. Zacher.

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This article belongs to the special issue on the “Kongsfjorden ecosystem – new views after more than a decade of research”, coordinated by Christian Wiencke and Haakon Hop.

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Zacher, K., Bernard, M., Bartsch, I. et al. Survival of early life history stages of Arctic kelps (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard) under multifactorial global change scenarios. Polar Biol 39, 2009–2020 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1906-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1906-1

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