File:Figure 4.49 - Temperature effects on aquatic animals.png

Temperature effects on aquatic animals. The thermal window of aerobic performance (left) display optima and limitations by pejus (“turning worse”), critical, and denaturation temperatures, when tolerance becomes increasingly passive and time-limited. Seasonal acclimatization involves a limited shift or reshaping of the window by mechanisms that adjust functional capacity, endurance, or protection. Positions and widths of windows on the temperature scale shift with life stage (right). Synergistic stressors like ocean acidification and hypoxia narrow thermal windows according to species-specific sensitivities (broken line), further modulating biogeographies, coexistence ranges, and other interactions. From: Pörtner, H.-O. and Farrel, A.P. (2008) Pysiology and Climate Change. Science 322:690-692; reprinted with permission from AAAS.