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People: Isabel Silva-Romero, Esteban Agudo, and Antonio León-Reyes

Nearly all the animals that inhabit the ocean are “cold-blooded,” or ectothermic, meaning their body temperatures match the temperature of the ocean around them. This has important consequences for their physiology and more broadly for the way marine ecosystems function. When ectotherms warm up, their metabolism increases — meaning they breathe more rapidly and eat more just to stay alive. This is bad news for prey since a warm predator is a hungry predator. But warming also enables prey species to crawl or swim away more quickly when being hunted. Thus, everything speeds up in warm water. Energy flows more quickly from the sun to seaweeds (via photosynthesis), to the herbivores, then on up to the large predators at the top of the food chain.

The research team is testing these ideas in the Galapagos Islands to determine how temperature influences marine ecosystems. The broad goal of this project is to understand the effect that temperature has on patterns and processes in upwelling systems. Specifically, the team is measuring the temperature-dependence of herbivory and carnivory in rocky subtidal habitats of the Galapagos.

The team is performing field experiments to measure the relative and interactive effects of temperature, herbivory, and nutrient flux on the productivity and standing biomass of benthic macroalgae. Additionally, we are using in situ predation assays across spatial and temporal temperature gradients and mesocosm experiments to determine the relationship between ocean temperature and predation intensity for predator-prey pairings including whelk–barnacle, sea star–urchin, and fish–squid. 

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation.