Temperature-driven dynamics: unraveling the impact of climate change on cryptic species interactions within the complex.

Anthropogenic climate change and the associated increase in sea temperatures are projected to greatly impact marine ecosystems. Temperature variation can influence the interactions between species, leading to cascading effects on the abundance, diversity and composition of communities. Such changes in community structure can have consequences on ecosystem stability, processes and the services it provides.

Structurally stable but functionally disrupted marine microbial communities under a future climate change scenario: Potential importance for nitrous oxide emissions.

The blue mussel Mytilus edulis is a widespread and abundant bivalve species along the North Sea with high economic and ecological importance as an engineer species. The shell of mussels is intensively colonized by microbial organisms that can produce significant quantities of nitrous oxide (NO), a potent greenhouse gas. To characterize the impacts of climate change on the composition, structure and functioning of microbial biofilms on the shell surface of M.

Global warming-induced temperature effects to intertidal tropical and temperate meiobenthic communities.

Global climate change and the related temperature rise strongly impact marine life and have long been in the center of scientific attention. This experimental work investigates thermal-stress effects on intertidal meiofauna from tropical and temperate coasts, focusing on community responses. Natural communities were exposed for a month to ambient, elevated constant temperatures and diurnal fluctuating temperature regimes with elevated peak maxima, to mimic realistic future climate conditions.

Living apart-together: Microhabitat differentiation of cryptic nematode species in a saltmarsh habitat.

Coexistence of highly similar species is at odds with ecological theory of competition; coexistence, then, requires stabilizing mechanisms such as differences in ecological niche. In the bacterivore nematode Litoditis marina species complex, which occurs associated with macro-algae, four cryptic lineages (Pm I-IV) co-occur in the field along the south-western coast and estuaries of The Netherlands. Here we investigate the temporal and/or spatial niche differentiation in their natural environment using a qPCR-based detection and relative quantification method.