Global climate change driven by anthropogenic activities has caused profound changes in both physical and chemical oceanic properties such as acidification, the decline in dissolved oxygen concentrations and the alteration of ocean circulation. Temperature surges and excessive release of carbon dioxide (CO2) increase the expansion of low oxygen zones, seriously impacting marine ecosystems. Climate change can also lead to disruptions in ion exchange and metabolism suppression when caused by pH decline, resulting in narrower windows of thermal tolerance for several species. Thermal stress reduces immune competence, impedes growth and causes sub-optimal behaviours in marine organisms. In fact, several diseases have shown greater virulence and transmission rate at higher water temperatures. Changes in seasonal patterns of precipitation also cause major shifts in distributions of ectothermic species, affecting ecosystem productivity and disrupting the reproduction of many aquatic species.
The ongoing intensification of climate change has also boosted species’ invasion rate, as many of them respond to thermal heterogeneity by shifting their distribution to habitats with more tolerable conditions. The redistribution of species with shifted latitudinal ranges will lead to the alteration of biotic interactions within reconstructed communities. Behavioural plasticity, which includes behavioural modification (ability to alter behavioural niche breadth) and behavioural generalism (ability to broaden behavioural repertoire), is an important adaptive mechanism to cope with environmental variability caused by global climate change. Foraging behaviour and social interaction changes facilitate behavioural niche alterations for tropical species to survive in temperate water, given that prey species differ between the warmer and cooler latitudes. Although mobile marine species can shift within climatic zones, sedentary organisms are defenseless against changing climates. In addition, new colonization areas are regulated by species’ reproductive and dispersal ability. Indeed, the temperature has mediating reproductive effects on poikilothermic marine species, coordinating the developmental stages towards sexual maturity. Temperature variability affects the time and size of hatching eggs, pelagic larval duration and survival of aquatic animals, as their metabolic functions and overall primary productivity of ecosystems are directly impacted by changes in ambient temperatures and other environmental variables. Genetic diversity is maintained by varying selective forces, including climate, but also by many other ecological and evolutionary constraints. To compensate for a changing climate, populations adapt in two potential ways: (1) local adaptations which are driven by genotypic changes, conferring higher fitness to those species in a particular situation (with that variation being maintained for as long as the selective force remains strong);or (2) through phenotypic plasticity which allows the survival and reproduction of species without affecting the genetic makeup of the population. Thus, decrypting phenotypic and genotypic responses is crucial for accurate prediction of climate change impacts on marine species.
Predicting the impacts of climate change on marine species remains an important goal for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. The advancement of omics approaches has transformed our ability to describe the biogeography, metabolic potential, diversity, adaptive mechanisms, phylogeny and evolutionary history of marine communities. This high-dimensional biology, also known as system biology, explores the biological systems in a holistic way, particularly the interactions between genes, proteins, RNA, and metabolites. Linking traditional physiological studies with the global omics approach allows the identification of the new genes, proteins and metabolite targets that support responses of marine species to environmental alteration to be simulated as a combination of fitness maximization and evolutionary constraints.
The main objective of this research topic is to showcase research that uses ‘omics” approaches in assessing the response of marine species at various hierarchical levels (ecosystem, species, cellular and molecular) in relation to the impacts of climate stressors (ocean acidification and warming). These studies shall encompass the role of climatic variables and their interaction with other stressors in altering marine ecosystem to predict the short to long-term global warming effects at the ecological, social and economic levels. This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, short communication, reviews, and mini-reviews that apply at least one of the “omics” techniques (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) to understand the mechanistic response of marine species toward changing oceanic conditions caused by changes in climate. The marine species could have ecological importance, aesthetic values or aquaculture capacities. Potential subtopics should include one but not limited to the following areas:
1. Evolutionary adaptation and underpinning mechanism
2. Phenology, distribution, population structure and population dynamics
3. Physiological and metabolic changes
4. Behavioural alterations and phenotypic plasticity
5. Cellular processes alterations
6. Molecular signaling mechanisms
Global climate change driven by anthropogenic activities has caused profound changes in both physical and chemical oceanic properties such as acidification, the decline in dissolved oxygen concentrations and the alteration of ocean circulation. Temperature surges and excessive release of carbon dioxide (CO2) increase the expansion of low oxygen zones, seriously impacting marine ecosystems. Climate change can also lead to disruptions in ion exchange and metabolism suppression when caused by pH decline, resulting in narrower windows of thermal tolerance for several species. Thermal stress reduces immune competence, impedes growth and causes sub-optimal behaviours in marine organisms. In fact, several diseases have shown greater virulence and transmission rate at higher water temperatures. Changes in seasonal patterns of precipitation also cause major shifts in distributions of ectothermic species, affecting ecosystem productivity and disrupting the reproduction of many aquatic species.
The ongoing intensification of climate change has also boosted species’ invasion rate, as many of them respond to thermal heterogeneity by shifting their distribution to habitats with more tolerable conditions. The redistribution of species with shifted latitudinal ranges will lead to the alteration of biotic interactions within reconstructed communities. Behavioural plasticity, which includes behavioural modification (ability to alter behavioural niche breadth) and behavioural generalism (ability to broaden behavioural repertoire), is an important adaptive mechanism to cope with environmental variability caused by global climate change. Foraging behaviour and social interaction changes facilitate behavioural niche alterations for tropical species to survive in temperate water, given that prey species differ between the warmer and cooler latitudes. Although mobile marine species can shift within climatic zones, sedentary organisms are defenseless against changing climates. In addition, new colonization areas are regulated by species’ reproductive and dispersal ability. Indeed, the temperature has mediating reproductive effects on poikilothermic marine species, coordinating the developmental stages towards sexual maturity. Temperature variability affects the time and size of hatching eggs, pelagic larval duration and survival of aquatic animals, as their metabolic functions and overall primary productivity of ecosystems are directly impacted by changes in ambient temperatures and other environmental variables. Genetic diversity is maintained by varying selective forces, including climate, but also by many other ecological and evolutionary constraints. To compensate for a changing climate, populations adapt in two potential ways: (1) local adaptations which are driven by genotypic changes, conferring higher fitness to those species in a particular situation (with that variation being maintained for as long as the selective force remains strong);or (2) through phenotypic plasticity which allows the survival and reproduction of species without affecting the genetic makeup of the population. Thus, decrypting phenotypic and genotypic responses is crucial for accurate prediction of climate change impacts on marine species.
Predicting the impacts of climate change on marine species remains an important goal for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. The advancement of omics approaches has transformed our ability to describe the biogeography, metabolic potential, diversity, adaptive mechanisms, phylogeny and evolutionary history of marine communities. This high-dimensional biology, also known as system biology, explores the biological systems in a holistic way, particularly the interactions between genes, proteins, RNA, and metabolites. Linking traditional physiological studies with the global omics approach allows the identification of the new genes, proteins and metabolite targets that support responses of marine species to environmental alteration to be simulated as a combination of fitness maximization and evolutionary constraints.
The main objective of this research topic is to showcase research that uses ‘omics” approaches in assessing the response of marine species at various hierarchical levels (ecosystem, species, cellular and molecular) in relation to the impacts of climate stressors (ocean acidification and warming). These studies shall encompass the role of climatic variables and their interaction with other stressors in altering marine ecosystem to predict the short to long-term global warming effects at the ecological, social and economic levels. This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, short communication, reviews, and mini-reviews that apply at least one of the “omics” techniques (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) to understand the mechanistic response of marine species toward changing oceanic conditions caused by changes in climate. The marine species could have ecological importance, aesthetic values or aquaculture capacities. Potential subtopics should include one but not limited to the following areas:
1. Evolutionary adaptation and underpinning mechanism
2. Phenology, distribution, population structure and population dynamics
3. Physiological and metabolic changes
4. Behavioural alterations and phenotypic plasticity
5. Cellular processes alterations
6. Molecular signaling mechanisms