Warming northward shifting southern limits of the iconic temperate seagrass (Zostera marina)
Shaochun Xu, Yu Zhang, Yi Zhou, Shuai Xu, Shidong Yue, Mingjie Liu, Xiaomei Zhang
Abstract
. To determine if regional warming resulted in a northward shift in suitable eelgrass habitats, sixteen transplantations of adult eelgrass shoots and seeds at the historical southern distribution limit of eelgrass were conducted between 2016 and 2021. The results showed that high water temperatures in summer had negative effects on eelgrass growth, and directly triggered shoot mortality during 2016-2018. Under heat stress, antioxidant enzyme activity was initially increased, but then decreased under more stressful heat conditions; and the HSP70 protein and its molecular chaperone protein were highly expressed under heat stress. These results demonstrated that suitable eelgrass habitat was now located further north along the eastern coast of China.