The Gray's sea fan, Paramuricea grayi (Johnson, 1861), typically inhabits deep littoral and circalittoral habitats of the eastern temperate and tropical Atlantic Ocean. Along the Iberian Peninsula, where P. grayi is a dominant constituent of circalittoral coral gardens, two segregating lineages (yellow and purple morphotypes) were recently identified using single-copy nuclear orthologues. The mitochondrial geno...
Understanding the factors and processes that shape intra-specific sensitivity to heat stress is fundamental to better predicting the vulnerability of benthic species to climate change. Here, we investigate the response of a habitat-forming Mediterranean octocoral, the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata (Risso, 1826) to thermal stress at multiple biological and geographical scales. Samples from eleven P. clavata ...
Thermal tolerance is often interpreted as a species-wide thermal niche in the absence of studies focusing on the adaptive potential of populations to exhibit differential thermal tolerance. Thus, considering intraspecific thermal plasticity, local adaptation or both between populations along distributional gradients when interpreting and predicting species responses to warming is imperative. Removing the effect...
Aim: Over the past 50 years, anthropogenic activities have led to the disappearance of approximately one-third of the world's mangrove forests and their associated ecosystem services. The synergetic combined effect of projected climate change is likely to further impact mangroves in the years to come, whether by range expansions associated with warming at higher latitudes or large-scale diebacks linked to sever...
Marine climate change mitigation initiatives have recently attracted a great deal of interest in the role of natural carbon sinks, particularly on coastal systems. Brown seaweeds of the genus Sargassum are the largest canopyforming algae in tropical and subtropical environments, with a wide global distribution on rocky reefs and as floating stands. Because these algae present high amounts of biomass, we suggest...
Successful prevention and mitigation of biological invasions requires retracing the initial steps of introduction, as well as understanding key elements enhancing the adaptability of invasive species. We studied the genetic diversity of the green alga Caulerpa taxifolia and its associated bacterial communities in several areas around the world. The striking congruence of alpha and beta diversity of the algal ge...
Geographical discontinuities in the composition of species assemblages are often mirrored by genetic clines and local adaptation in species that extend across such biogeographic disjunction. Species distributed across such biogeographic discontinuities are thus more prone to develop genetic clines and adaptations to environmental variation. The northwest coast of France encompasses a biogeographic boundary betw...
The evolutionary history of the genus Ruppia has been shaped by hybridization, polyploidisation and vicariance that have resulted in a problematic taxonomy. Recent studies provided insight into species circumscription, organelle takeover by hybridization, and revealed the importance of verifying species identification to avoid distorting effects of mixing different species, when estimating population connectivi...
Ruppia maritima (widgeon grass) has been identified phylogenetically for the first time from West Africa (Santiago Island, Cape Verde). Genetic markers distinguished this species from the tetraploid Ruppia cf. maritima previously known from West Africa. Taxonomic description, photographs and molecular phylogenetic classification are provided here. The results show that, in Cape Verde, the species is phylogeneti...
Global climate change is likely to constrain low latitude range edges across many taxa and habitats. Such is the case for NE Atlantic marine macroalgal forests, important ecosystems whose main structuring species is the annual kelp Saccorhiza polyschides. We coupled ecological niche modelling with simulations of potential dispersal and delayed development stages to infer the major forces shaping range edges and...