Katherine Fenton1,2, Gaya Gnanalingam3,2, Roseanna Gamlen-Greene3, Nathan Kenny3,2, Christopher Cornwall1,2
1Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka, New Zealand, 2Coastal People Southern Skies Centre of Research Excellence, New Zealand, 3University of Otago, New Zealand
The increased frequency, intensity and length of coastal marine heatwaves poses a threat to invertebrates in lower intertidal and subtidal habitat throughout temperate regions of the world. The effect of these climate-scale events, coupled with local stressors associated with climate change such as reduced salinity through coastal flooding events have so far been understudied in temperate environments. In this study we apply a six-week simulated marine heatwave in combination with a simulated flooding event in an experimental context, to help understand responses of the blackfoot abalone Haliotis iris (known locally by its indigenous name, pāua) in coastal regions affected by flooding and marine heatwaves. Measured responses include transcriptomic analyses, behavioural analyses and growth rate measurements. We apply our results in the context of two indigenous communities in the North Island of New Zealand, one urban and one rural, whose pāua undergo very different local stressors associated with freshwater run-off. We compare our experimental results with field surveys of pāua density and distribution in these locations, and pāua response (both transcriptomic and behavioural) to locally relevant temperature fluctuations with coastal marine heatwaves on the west and east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. We discuss how these results can inform management of pāua within these regions with increased marine heatwaves impacting their ecosystems, and how these changes may have implications for these communities.
Biography
Katherine Fenton is a PhD student at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. With the support of Coastal People: Southern Skies Centre of Research Excellence she studies how climate-change-induced stressors are affecting key species in temperate rocky regions. She also investigates the impacts these changes have on coastal communities, and how ecologically-informed monitoring protocols can assist management of these areas at a reef-by-reef level.