0000000000172594
AUTHOR
Gray A. Williams
showing 7 related works from this author
Moving Toward a Strategy for Addressing Climate Displacement of Marine Resources: A Proof-of-Concept
2020
Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorporating quantitative information on functional traits, can potentially predict species- and population-specific responses that result from the cumulative impacts of small-scale processes acting at the organismal level, and can be used to infer population-level dynamics and inform natural resources management. Here we present a proof-of-concept study…
The impact of climate change on Mediterranean intertidal communities: losses in coastal ecosystem integrity and services
2014
As has been shown for other ecosystems, the ecological and socio-economic impacts of climate change on Mediterranean intertidal habitats are highly variable in space and time. We conducted field and laboratory measurements of cellular, ecophysiological and behavioural responses of selected intertidal invertebrates (mussels, gastropods and sponges) and completed a literature review to determine what is known of socioeconomic consequences of these biological changes. Results suggest significant gaps in our knowledge that may impede a complete understanding of likely impacts (physical, biological, and socioeconomic) and that sufficient data for such an analysis is available only for mussels. A…
Variations in physiological responses to thermal stress in congeneric limpets in the Mediterranean Sea
2014
Cardiac activity (Arrhenius breakpoint temperatures and Q10 relationships) and heat shock response (hsp70 expression) were measured in the congeneric limpets Patella rustica, P. caerulea and P. ulyssiponensis in order to test the relationship between their vertical distribution and physiological thermal tolerance. These species exhibit different vertical distributions along Mediterranean shores and despite the narrow tidal range in the Mediterranean, they experience different environmental conditions and consequently had specific thermal windows. Cardiac activity of the upper zoned P. rustica was maintained at higher temperatures than its mid- or low shore counterparts, P. caerulea and P. u…
Predicting effective aquaculture in subtropical waters: A dynamic energy budget model for the green lipped mussel, Perna viridis
2018
Abstract The green lipped mussel, Perna viridis, is an important aquaculture species throughout the Indo-Pacific region where production is often impacted by environmental degradation. To predict the impacts and mitigate against environmental problems due to various kinds of anthropogenic pollution, such as heavy metals and eutrophication, on P. viridis aquaculture a Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model was constructed. By integrating species-specific parameters and regional-specific environmental data the DEB model determined how the life history traits of P. viridis respond to changing environmental conditions. Using various levels of basal maintenance costs and food availability to elucidat…
The importance of thermal history: costs and benefits of heat exposure in a tropical, rocky shore oyster.
2015
Although thermal performance is widely recognized to be pivotal in determining species' distributions, assessment of this performance is often based on laboratory acclimated individuals, neglecting their proximate thermal history. The thermal history of a species sums the evolutionary history and, importantly, the thermal events recently experienced by individuals, including short-term acclimation to environmental variations. Thermal history is perhaps of greatest importance for species inhabiting thermally challenging environments and therefore assumed to be living close to their thermal limits, such as in the tropics. To test the importance of thermal history the responses of the tropical…
Integrating mechanistic models and climate change projections to predict invasion of the mussel, Mytilopsis sallei, along the southern China coast
2021
Species invasion is an important cause of global biodiversity decline and is often mediated by shifts in environmental conditions such as climate change. To investigate this relationship, a mechanistic Dynamic Energy Budget model (DEB) approach was used to predict how climate change may affect spread of the invasive mussel Mytilopsis sallei, by predicting variation in the total reproductive output of the mussel under different scenarios. To achieve this, the DEB model was forced with present-day satellite data of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), and SST under two warming RCP scenarios and decreasing current Chl-a levels, to predict future responses. Und…
Combined effects of thermal conditions and food availability on thermal tolerance of the marine bivalve, Perna viridis
2018
Abstract Organisms can mitigate the effects of long term variation in environmental conditions through acclimation, which involves changes in various physiological responses. To elucidate the possible effects of temperature and food concentrations on acclimation capacity, physiological responses of the mussel, Perna viridis, were measured after individuals were held for six weeks under varying temperatures and food availability. Warm-acclimated mussels experiencing higher food levels had significantly greater upper thermal limits than those maintained on lower food levels. In contrast, the upper thermal limits of cold-acclimated mussels were not affected by food levels. For warm-acclimated …