The physiological strategies that enable organisms to thrive in habitats where environmental factors vary dramatically on a daily basis are poorly understood. One of the most variable and unpredictable habitats on earth is the marine rocky intertidal zone located at the boundary between the terrestrial and marine environments. Mussels dominate rocky intertidal habitats throughout the world and,...

We show here that increased variability of temperature and pH synergistically negatively affects the energetics of intertidal zone crabs. Under future climate scenarios, coastal ecosystems are projected to have increased extremes of low tide-associated thermal stress and ocean acidification-associated low pH, the individual or interactive effects of which have yet to be determined. To character...

This survey provides baseline information on sediment characteristics, porewater, adsorbed and plant tissue nutrients from intertidal coastal seagrass meadows in the central region of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Data collected from 11 locations, representative of intertidal coastal seagrass beds across the region, indicated that the chemical environment was typical of other trop...

The barnacle Balanus amphitrite Darwin is a dominant intertidal and major fouling organism. As its life cycle includes both sessile and pelagic phases, adaptation is a necessity to tolerate harsh conditions that are faced in the intertidal and pelagic environment. A downward trend in dissolved oxygen levels in coastal areas has been recently observed, which would have a more prominent effect on...

The response of bivalves to their abiotic environment has been widely studied in relation to hydroenvironmental conditions, sediment types and sediment grain sizes. However, the possible role of varying geoenvironmental conditions in their habitats remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the hardness of the surficial intertidal sediments varies by a factor of 20-50 due to suction developm...

Tidal seawater inundation of coastal acid sulfate soils can generate Fe- and S0(4)-reducing conditions in previously oxic-acidic sediments. This creates potential for mobilization of As during the redox transition. We explore the consequences for As by investigating the hydrology, porewater geochemistry, solid-phase speciation, and mineralogical partitioning of As across two tidal fringe topose...

A major dieback of seagrass occurred in South Australia where 12,717 ha of intertidal and shallow subtidal seagrasses were lost along the north eastern coast of Spencer Gulf. This was a rapid decline, occurring toward the end of summer in January or early February of 1993. The extent and location of the dieback was mapped from aerial photographs taken before (1987) and after the event (1994). E...

We experimentally manipulated nutrient input to a rocky intertidal community, using nutrient-diffusing flowerpots, to determine (i) whether nutrients limited intertidal productivity, (ii) how a large-scale oceanographic disturbance (an El Niño event) affected patterns of nutrient limitation, (iii) the relative impacts of molluscan grazers and nutrient limitation, and (iv) if responses to experi...

BACKGROUND Enhanced nutrient loading and depletion of consumer populations interact to alter the structure of aquatic plant communities. Nonetheless, variation between adjacent habitats in the relative strength of bottom-up (i.e. nutrients) versus top-down (i.e. grazing) forces as determinants of community structure across broad spatial scales remains unexplored. We experimentally assessed the ...

As we move into the Anthropocene, organisms inhabiting marine environments will continue to face growing challenges associated with changes in ocean pH (ocean acidification), dissolved oxygen (dead zones) and temperature. These factors, in combination with naturally variable environments such as the rocky intertidal zone, may create extreme physiological challenges for organisms that are alread...