Disturbance of primary producer communities disrupts the thermal limits of the associated aquatic fauna

Environmental fluctuation forms a framework of variability within which species have evolved. Environmental fluctu-ation includes predictability, such as diel cycles of aquatic oxygen fluctuation driven by primary producers. Oxygen availability and fluctuation shape the physiological responses of aquatic animals to warming, so that, in theory, oxygen fluctuation could influence their thermal ecology. We describe annual oxygen variability in agricultural drainage chan-nels and show that disruption of oxygen fluctuation through dredging of plants reduces the thermal tolerance of fresh-water animals. We compared the temperature responses of snails, amphipods, leeches and mussels exposed to either natural oxygen fluctuation or constant oxygen in situ under different acclimation periods. Oxygen saturation in chan-nel water ranged from c. 0 a/o saturation at night to >300 a/o during the day. Temperature showed normal seasonal var-iation and was almost synchronous with daily oxygen fluctuation. A dredging event in 2020 dramatically reduced dissolved oxygen variability and the correlation between oxygen and temperature was lost. The tolerance of inverte-brates to thermal stress was significantly lower when natural fluctuation in oxygen availability was reduced and decoupled from temperature. This highlights the importance of natural cycles of variability and the need to include finer scale effects, including indirect biological effects, in modelling the ecosystem-level consequences of climate change. Furthermore, restoration and management of primary producers in aquatic habitats could be important to im-prove the thermal protection of aquatic invertebrates and their resistance to environmental variation imposed by cli-mate change.

Automated summary

Environmental fluctuation creates a variability framework for species evolution. This includes predictable diel cycles of aquatic oxygen fluctuation, which could influence the thermal ecology of aquatic animals. The disruption of oxygen fluctuation through dredging of plants reduces the thermal tolerance of freshwater animals, highlighting the importance of natural cycles of variability in modeling the ecosystem-level consequences of climate change. Restoration and management of primary producers in aquatic habitats could improve the thermal protection and resistance of aquatic invertebrates to environmental variation imposed by climate change.