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Climate Change Affects Marine Fishes Through the Oxygen Limitation of Thermal Tolerance
Hans O. Pörtner* and
Rainer Knust
A cause-and-effect understanding of climate influences on ecosystemsrequires evaluation of thermal limits of member species andof their ability to cope with changing temperatures. Laboratorydata available for marine fish and invertebrates from variousclimatic regions led to the hypothesis that, as a unifying principle,a mismatch between the demand for oxygen and the capacity ofoxygen supply to tissues is the first mechanism to restrictwhole-animal tolerance to thermal extremes. We show in the eelpout,Zoarces viviparus, a bioindicator fish species for environmentalmonitoring from North and Baltic Seas (Helcom), that thermallylimited oxygen delivery closely matches environmental temperaturesbeyond which growth performance and abundance decrease. Decrementsin aerobic performance in warming seas will thus be the firstprocess to cause extinction or relocation to cooler waters.
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Animal Ecophysiology, Postfach 12 01 61, 27515 Bremerhaven, Germany.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hpoertner{at}awi-bremerhaven.de
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