Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 105, Issue 1, Pages 324-336Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.02.002
Keywords
East Mediterranean; Thermohaline pollution; Climate change; Benthic foraminifera; Lessepsian invaders; Hard-bottom habitat
Funding
- BMBF-MOST cooperation in Marine Sciences [03F0639A]
- Ministry of Energy and Water Resources Grant [212-17-015]
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Persistent thermohaline pollution at a site along the northern coast of Israel, due to power and desalination plants, is used as a natural laboratory to evaluate the effects of rising temperature and salinity levels on benthic foraminifera living in shallow hard-bottom habitats. Biomonitoring of the disturbed area and a control station shows that elevated temperature is a more significant stressor compared to salinity, thus causing a decrease in abundance and richness. Critical temperature thresholds were observed at 30 and 35 degrees C, the latter representing the most thermally tolerant species in the studied area Pararotalia calcariformata, which is the only symbiont-bearing species observed within the core of the heated area. Common species of the shallow hard-bottom habitats including several Lessepsian invaders are almost absent in the most exposed site indicating that excess warming will likely impede the survival of these species that currently benefit from the ongoing warming of the Eastern Mediterranean. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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