Species vulnerability under climate change: Study of two sea urchins at their distribution margin

In order to develop powerful predictions on the impact of climate change on marine organisms, it is critical to understand how abiotic drivers such as temperature can directly and indirectly affect marine organisms. Here, we evaluated and compared the physiological vulnerability of the leading-edge populations of two species of sea urchins Loxechinus albus and Pseudechinus magellanicus in response to predicted ocean warming and food limitation. After exposing sea urchins to a 60-day experimental period to contrasting temperature (1 °C, 7 °C and 14 °C corresponding respectively to the actual average summer temperature in Antarctica, the control treatment temperature and the predicted future temperature in the Strait of Magellan) and diet levels (ad libitum or food limitation), sea urchin stress tolerance was assessed. Sea urchins' physiology was measured at the organismal and sub-cellular level by studying the organisms energy balance (behavior, growth, gonad index, ingestion rate, O₂ uptake, energy reserves) and the expression of genes associated with aerobic metabolism. Our results showed that at their distribution edge, and despite their distinct geographical repartition, both species might be resilient to ocean warming. However, the combination of ocean warming and food limitation reduced the stress tolerance of sea urchins. In a warming ocean, another strategy could be to migrate toward the pole to a cooler environment but incubation at 1 °C resulted in a diminution of both species' aerobic scope. Overall, if these engineer species are unable to acclimate to food limitation under future climate, population fitness could be affected with ecological and economic consequences.