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Scaling up: Predicting the Impacts of Climate Change on Seagrass Ecosystems

  • Special Issue: Seagrasses Tribute to Susan Williams
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Abstract

Since Susan Williams and I started our scientific careers in the mid-1970s, seagrass science has been transformed from a largely descriptive field to an increasingly quantitative and predictive endeavor that requires a mechanistic understanding of environmental influence on metabolic networks that control energy assimilation, growth, and reproduction. Although the potential impacts of environment on gene products are myriad, important phenotypic responses are often regulated by a few key points in metabolic networks where externally supplied resources or physiological substrates limit reaction kinetics. Environmental resources commonly limiting seagrass productivity, survival, and growth include light, temperature, and CO2 availability that control carbon assimilation and sucrose formation, and regulate stress responses to environmental change. Here I present a systems approach to quantify the responses of seagrasses to shifts in environmental factors that control fundamental physiological processes and whole plant performance in the context of a changing climate. This review shows that our ability to understand the past and predict the future trajectory of seagrass-based ecosystems can benefit from a mechanistic understanding of the responses of these remarkable plants to the simultaneous impacts of ocean acidification, climate warming, and eutrophication that are altering ecosystem function across the globe.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks for the insight, guidance, and creativity of mentors, collaborators, and students who helped articulate and demonstrate the ideas presented here, especially James Kremer, Randall Alberte, Steve Ackleson, Olga Invers, Sherry Palacios, Heidi Dierssen, Victoria Hill, David Ruble, Billur Celebi, Meredith McPherson, and Carmen Zayas-Santiago, as well as numerous colleagues for providing lively discussions that helped formulate these ideas over the years. A special thank you to Robert Howarth and Ken Heck for initially suggesting this review and for their patience during its longer-than expected gestation. Dedicated to the memory of Susan Williams.

Funding

Financial support for the preparation of this manuscript was provided by the National Science Foundation (OCE-1635403), the Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX17AH01G), and the Ocean Acidification Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA18NOS4780177).

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  1. Department of Ocean, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Richard C. Zimmerman

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Any opinions, conclusions, recommendations, and especially the errors expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of my mentors, colleagues, students, or the funding agencies.

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Communicated by Kenneth L. Heck

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Zimmerman, R.C. Scaling up: Predicting the Impacts of Climate Change on Seagrass Ecosystems. Estuaries and Coasts 44, 558–576 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00837-7

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