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Volume 2
Environment Pollution and Climate Change
ISSN: 2573-458X
Climate Change 2018 &
Global ENVITOX 2018
October 04-06, 2018
Page 41
conference
series
.com
October 04-06, 2018
London, UK
16
th
Annual Meeting on
Environmental Toxicology and Biological Systems
&
5
th
World Conference on
Climate Change
JOINT EVENT
Simon A Morley, Environ Pollut Climate Change 2018, Volume 2
DOI: 10.4172/2573-458X-C1-001
Antarctic marine biodiversity and climate change
H
uman culture and food security rely on the ecosystem services provided by historic patterns of biodiversity. We therefore need
to understand the factors that determine where species can and cannot live, and the impact of both natural and anthropogenic
variation. Such predictions require an understanding of the mechanisms underlying species range limits, and how they are linked
to climate. The Southern Ocean offers a “natural laboratory” for testing the evolutionary and physiological capacity of species in
response to their environment. Its isolation has resulted in high levels of endemism and the lack of indigenous humans means that
the environment is close to pristine. It is a constantly cold ocean but with large seasonal variation in light levels, primary productivity
and pH. Animals living in the Southern Ocean have several physiological adaptations for life in the cold, including natural antifreeze,
increased mitochondrial densities and the ability to grow to a large size. Life in the extreme cold has also resulted in a reduced ability
to cope with warming. The activity limits for limpets and clams are only 1 to 2°C above current maximum summer temperatures.
Comparisons of long-term oceanographic and reproductive data-sets have shown that one of the strongest signals affecting inter-
annual variability in reproduction is El Niño, which causes dramatic changes in the coastal system. In addition to this understanding,
the Western Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the fastest warming regions, resulting in massive changes in the cryosphere. The
reduction in the duration of winter sea ice, an increase in energy transfer from the atmosphere and the increase in iceberg scour
has resulted in dramatic changes in benthic communities. Findings from the Antarctic have taught us much about the evolution of
physiological capacity and the evolution of marine communities across latitudes.
Recent Publications
1. Ashton G V, Morley S A, Barnes D K A, Clark M S and Peck L S (2017) Warming
by 1°C drives species and assemblage level responses in Antarctica’s marine
shallows. Current Biology 27(17):2698–2705.
2. Watson S A, Morley S A and Peck L S (2017) Latitudinal trends in shell production
cost from the tropics to the poles Science Advances 3(9):e1701362.
3. Morley S A, Nguyen K D, Peck L S, Lai C-H and Tan K S (2017) Can acclimation
of thermal tolerance, in adults and across generations, act as a buffer against
climate change in tropical marine ectotherms? J Therm. Biol. 68:195–199.
4. Morley S A, Suckling C S, Clark M S, Cross E L and Peck L S (2016) Long term effects of altered pH and temperature on the
feeding energetics of the Antarctic sea urchin,
Sterechinus neumayeri
. Biodiversity 17:34–45.
5. Morley S A Chien-Hsian L, Clarke A, Tan K S, Thorne M A S and Peck L S (2014) Limpet feeding rate and the consistency
of physiological response to temperature. J Comp Physiol. 184:563–570.
Biography
SimonAMorley’s research has a latitudinal focus on understanding the mechanisms that determine species tolerance and plasticity. He is a trained Physiologist completing
a PhD with the University of Liverpool in 1998 before a Postdoctoral position at the University of Bangor before he joined the British Antarctic Survey as a Fisheries
Ecologist, and spent two years based at King Edward Point at the Island of South Georgia.
smor@bas.ac.ukSimon A Morley
British Antarctic Survey, UK