The importance of thermal history: costs and benefits of heat exposure in a tropical, rocky shore oyster

Abstract

Although thermal performance is widely recognised to be pivotal in determining species' distributions, assessment of this performance is often based on laboratory-acclimated individuals, neglecting their proximate thermal history. The thermal history of a species sums the evolutionary history and, importantly, the thermal events recently experienced by individuals, including short-term acclimation to environmental variations. Thermal history is perhaps of greatest importance for species inhabiting thermally challenging environments and therefore assumed to be living close to their thermal limits, such as in the tropics. To test the importance of thermal history, the responses of the tropical oyster Isognomon nucleus to short-term differences in thermal environments were investigated. Critical and lethal temperatures and oxygen consumption were improved in oysters that previously experienced elevated air temperatures, and were associated with an enhanced heat shock response, indicating that recent thermal history affects physiological performance as well as inducing short-term acclimation to acute conditions. These responses were, however, associated with tradeoffs in feeding activity, with oysters that experienced elevated temperatures showing reduced energy gain. Recent thermal history, therefore, seems to rapidly invoke physiological mechanisms that enhance survivalofshort-term thermal challenge but also longer term climatic changes and consequently needs to be incorporated into assessments of species' thermal performances.