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Fig. 2. Air and water temperature (measured by offshore buoys) and mussel body
temperature in the mid intertidal zones of (A) Strawberry Hill, Oregon, USA
and (B) Bodega Bay, California, USA from February 2006 to February 2008. At
the Oregon site, annual peaks (indicated by arrows) in body temperature are in
phase with air and water temperature and occur in late June/early July. By
contrast, at the central Californian site, peaks in body temperature (in late
May/early June) are out of phase with annual peaks in air and water
temperature (which occur in September). Moreover, a comparison of the
magnitude of the peaks at the two sites shows that mussels at the two sites
experienced similar peak annual temperatures in 2007, but animals experienced
substantially higher temperatures at the Oregon (more pole ward) site in 2006.
These data show that habitat-level measurements (air and water temperature)
cannot always be used as indicators of temporal patterns in organism
temperature and that temperatures do not always decrease with increasing
latitude. While air and water temperature are important drivers of intertidal
temperature, the effects of wave splash, fog and, most importantly, the timing
of low tides modify these factors. Air temperatures were recorded by NOAA
(National Buoy Data Center) buoys 46050 (Stonewall Banks, 20 nautical miles
offshore) and 46013 (Bodega Bay, 30 nautical miles offshore). Biomimetic
sensors, instruments that mimic the thermal characteristics of organisms
recorded mussel body temperatures.
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