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Research Article
Survival and arm abscission are linked to regional heterothermy in an intertidal sea star
Sylvain Pincebourde, Eric Sanford, Brian Helmuth
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2183-2191; doi: 10.1242/jeb.083881
Sylvain Pincebourde
1Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l'Insecte (IRBI, CNRS UMR 7261), Université François Rabelais, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, 37200 Tours, France
2University of South Carolina, Environment and Sustainability Program and Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
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  • For correspondence: sylvain.pincebourde@univ-tours.fr
Eric Sanford
3Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
4Bodega Marine Laboratory, Bodega Bay, CA 94923, USA
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Brian Helmuth
2University of South Carolina, Environment and Sustainability Program and Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
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SUMMARY

Body temperature is a more pertinent variable to physiological stress than ambient air temperature. Modeling and empirical studies on the impacts of climate change on ectotherms usually assume that body temperature within organisms is uniform. However, many ectotherms show significant within-body temperature heterogeneity. The relationship between regional heterothermy and the response of ectotherms to sublethal and lethal conditions remains underexplored. We quantified within-body thermal heterogeneity in an intertidal sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) during aerial exposure at low tide to examine the lethal and sublethal effects of temperatures of different body regions. In manipulative experiments, we measured the temperature of the arms and central disc, as well as survival and arm abscission under extreme aerial conditions. Survival was related strongly to central disc temperature. Arms were generally warmer than the central disc in individuals that survived aerial heating, but we found the reverse in those that died. When the central disc reached sublethal temperatures of 31–35°C, arms reached temperatures of 33–39°C, inducing arm abscission. The absolute temperature of individual arms was a poor predictor of arm abscission, but the arms lost were consistently the hottest at the within-individual scale. Therefore, the vital region of this sea star may remain below the lethal threshold under extreme conditions, possibly through water movement from the arms to the central disc and/or evaporative cooling, but at the cost of increased risk of arm abscission. Initiation of arm abscission seems to reflect a whole-organism response while death occurs as a result of stress acting directly on central disc tissues.

FOOTNOTES

  • ↵† Present address: Marine Science Center, Northeastern University, Nahant, MA 01908, USA

  • AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

    All three authors contributed significantly to conception, design and execution of the study, interpretation of the findings, as well as drafting and revising the article.

  • Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/216/12/2183/DC1

  • COMPETING INTERESTS

    No competing interests declared.

  • FUNDING

    This research was funded by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NNG04GE43G to B.H.], the National Science Foundation [OCE-06-22924 to E.S.], and by a Lavoisier fellowship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2007) to S.P.

  • © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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Keywords

  • Autotomy
  • Body temperature
  • intertidal ecosystem
  • lethal temperature
  • Pisaster ochraceus
  • sublethal effect
  • Thermal ecology
  • thermal heterogeneity

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Research Article
Survival and arm abscission are linked to regional heterothermy in an intertidal sea star
Sylvain Pincebourde, Eric Sanford, Brian Helmuth
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2183-2191; doi: 10.1242/jeb.083881
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Research Article
Survival and arm abscission are linked to regional heterothermy in an intertidal sea star
Sylvain Pincebourde, Eric Sanford, Brian Helmuth
Journal of Experimental Biology 2013 216: 2183-2191; doi: 10.1242/jeb.083881

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