Facilitation alters climate change risk on rocky shores.

A huge fraction of global biodiversity resides within biogenic habitats that ameliorate physical stresses. In most cases, details of how physical conditions within facilitative habitats respond to external climate forcing remain unknown, hampering climate change predictions for many of the world's species. Using intertidal mussel beds as a model system, we characterize relationships among external climate conditions and within-microhabitat heat and desiccation conditions.

Differing responses of red abalone () and white abalone () to infection with phage-associated Xenohaliotis californiensis.

The Rickettsiales-like prokaryote and causative agent of Withering Syndrome (WS)- Xenohaliotis californiensis ( Xc)-decimated black abalone populations along the Pacific coast of North America. White abalone--are also susceptible to WS and have become nearly extinct in the wild due to overfishing in the 1970s. Xenohaliotis californiensis proliferates within epithelial cells of the abalone gastrointestinal tract and causes clinical signs of starvation.