Recently, iScience, a sub-journal of Cell, an international academic journal, published research results of the Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences online. The study found for the first time that climate warming has caused the southern boundary of eelgrass to move northward, revealing the potential impact of global climate change on seagrass bed ecosystems.
Global warming will shift the geographic distribution of many species toward the poles. This study took Zostera marina L., a widely distributed seagrass species in temperate waters, as the research object, and conducted a comprehensive re-investigation of the southern sea area (Qingdao, Shandong-Lianyungang, Jiangsu) of the geographical distribution of eelgrass in my country, and compared the historical documents. It is found that the southern boundary of the geographical distribution of eelgrass in my country has moved northward, and moved northward from Rizhao Shijiu to Yumingzui, Qingdao. In order to determine whether the northward shift of eelgrass geographical distribution is caused by regional warming, from 2016 to 2021, researchers obtained eelgrass plants and seeds from Qingdao Bay and , and carried out a total of 16 eelgrass plants in the sea area of Rizhao Shijiu Institute. Transplantation and seed planting experiments, monitoring the growth status of seagrass and other environmental parameters such as water temperature, and conducting seagrass biochemical analysis and transcriptome analysis. The
study found that in 16 restoration experiments from 2016 to 2021, both eelgrass seedlings and plants could not survive the first or second summer after transplantation, which indicates that high water temperature in summer is the reason for the failure of eelgrass transplantation and restoration. main reason. Under heat stress, the activity of antioxidant enzymes increased, and with the increase of water temperature or the prolongation of stress time, the system of antioxidant enzymes eventually collapsed, resulting in decreased activity of antioxidant enzymes, damage to eelgrass, and eventually death. Transcriptome results showed that the gene expression of HSP70 protein family and its molecular chaperone luminal binding protein was significantly up-regulated under heat stress conditions. The above studies show that the habitat of eelgrass in my country has moved northward under the background of global climate change.
Dr. Xu Shaochun and Dr. Zhang Yu from the Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences are the co-first authors of the paper, and researcher Zhou Yi is the corresponding author of . The research was funded by the National Science and Technology Fundamental Work Project, the National Key R&D Program , and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Frontier Science Key Research Project.
(reported by Dazhong Daily client reporter Bo Keguo correspondent Li Hezhao)
