Francisco Arenas

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Verified

Francisco verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Group Leader at University of Porto

The loss of marine foundation species, in particular kelps at temperate latitudes, has been linked to climatic drivers and co‐occurring human perturbations. Ocean temperature and nutrients typically covary over local and regional scales and play a crucial role on kelp dynamics. Examining their independent and interactive effects on kelp physiologic...

Accurate forecasts of the biological impacts of climate change require a better understanding of how small‐scale temperature variability affects individual physiology and population dynamics. However, doing so for intertidal species with large distribution ranges while accounting for the effects of local adaptation presents numerous technical chall...

Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme temperature events, often causing sublethal stress or mass mortalities in organisms. This has raised the interest in assessing species' thermal performance under current and future climates. Common‐garden experiments are widely used to assess species' heat tolerance across populations from diffe...

Laminaria hyperborea, a key species in marine forest ecosystems, is experiencing pressure at its southern distribution limit in northern Portugal due to climate change and human-induced stressors. The ongoing degradation of marine forests highlights the need for effective restoration strategies to protect biodiversity and maintain the essential ser...

Ascophyllum nodosum is an ecologically and economically important species forming marine forests in temperate regions. In Europe, this brown seaweed reaches its southern distribution limit in the north of Portugal, where populations are under climatic pressure. Conservation and restoration actions are essential to preserve the important ecological...

The management and creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is currently under great focus, with international organisations aiming to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. The success of MPAs depends on a nuanced understanding of local ecological dynamics and threats, which can significantly influence ecosystem balance. Herbivory can be a stressor f...

The natural products industry is gaining increasing interest, not only due to modern lifestyles becoming more aware of environmental and sustainability issues but also because of the loss of efficacy and undesirable side effects of synthetic ingredients. This pioneering study provides a comprehensive comparison between extracts obtained from wild a...

Accurate forecasts of the biological impacts of climate change require a better understanding of how small-scale temperature variability affects individual physiology and population dynamics. But doing so for intertidal species with large distribution ranges, while also accounting for the effect of local adaptation, presents numerous technical chal...

Accurately quantifying primary productivity in highly dynamic subtidal rocky habitats, particularly those with high canopy-forming macroalgae, is inherently challenging, leading to a scarcity of information. Kelp primary productivity has primarily been assessed through (1) quantification of carbon standing stock and biomass, which provides limited...

Surface temperature of the oceans has increased globally over the past decades. In coastal areas influenced by eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS), winds push seawater offshore and deep, cold and nutrient-rich seawater rise towards the surface, partially buffering global warming. On the North coast of Portugal, the NW Iberian upwelling system...

The sea-level rise and intensification of extreme weather events pose a significant threat to coastal regions and their communities worldwide. With significant wave heights reaching over 5 m, and wave periods over 10 s (Mendes & Oliveira, 2021), the Portuguese coastline is exposed to major coastal erosion, due to the marine harsh conditions of the...

Understanding climate change impacts on benthic habitats is crucial to acknowledge their actual ecosystem functioning value. One pertinent way to achieve this is by measuring primary productivity. Accurately quantifying primary productivity in turbulent subtidal, rocky habitats, particularly those with high canopy forming seaweeds, such as kelp, is...

Anthropogenic climate change, particularly seawater warming, is expected to drive quick shifts in marine species distribution transforming coastal communities. These shifts in distribution will be particularly noticeable in biogeographical transition zones. The continental Portuguese coast stretches from north to south along 900 km. Despite this sh...

Intertidal communities have been extensively studied for decades. Many of these studies have focused on macroalgae, as they are key components of many rocky coastal ecosystems. Despite this, there are still regions of the world where there is a lack of knowledge of intertidal macroalgal communities. This is the case in some tropical regions, such a...

Coastal areas are affected by multiple stressors like climate change and endocrine disruptors (EDCs). In the laboratory, we investigated the combined effects of increased temperature and EDCs (drospirenone and mercury) on the fitness and gonads' maturation dynamics of the marine gastropod Nucella lapillus for 21 days. Survival was negatively affect...

Mapping species' geographical distribution is fundamental for understanding current patterns and forecasting future changes. Living on rocky shores along the intertidal zone, limpets are vulnerable to climate change, as their range limits are controlled by seawater temperature. Many works have been studying limpets' potential responses to climate c...

Aim Global warming is affecting the distribution of species worldwide, but the level of adaptation of edge populations to warmer temperatures remains an open question. Here, we assess the thermal tolerance of populations of two habitat‐forming seaweeds along their latitudinal range, using thermal niche unfilling to assess their resilience to global...

Anthropogenic climate change, particularly seawater warming, is expected to drive quick shifts in marine species distribution transforming coastal communities. These shifts in distribution will be particularly noticeable in biogeographical transition zones. The continental Portuguese coast stretches from north to south along 900 Km. Despite this sh...

Limpets ( Patella spp.) are marine gastropods that inhabit rocky shores along the coasts of Europe, the Mediterranean, Macaronesia and the north-west coast of Africa. Being considered key species, limpets have an important role regulating algal assemblages in coastal communities. The goal of this work was to evaluate the influence of sea temperatur...

Surface temperature of the oceans has increased globally over the past decades. In coastal areas influenced by eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS) winds push seawater offshore and deep, cold and nutrient rich seawater rise toward the surface, partially buffering global warming. In North coast of Portugal, the NW Iberian upwelling system allow...

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) require effective indicators to assess their performance, in compliance with the goals of relevant national and international commitments. Achieving and prioritizing shortlists of multidisciplinary indicators demands a significant effort from specialists to depict the multiple conservation and socioeconomic interests,...

Low levels of concern about anthropogenic climate change have been attributed to a range of factors, some of which relate to education. These include people’s lack of understanding and engagement with the multifaceted nature and extent of the problem that it presents to current and future generations. Limited knowledge is also known to be an obstac...

Aim To understand spatial‐temporal changes (beta‐diversity) in coastal communities and their drivers in the context of climate change. Coastal ecosystems are extremely exposed and dynamic, where changes in seaweed assemblages have been associated with changing water temperatures. However, at local scale, the effects of changes in the upwelling even...

Marine heatwaves are increasing worldwide, with several negative impacts on biological communities and ecosystems. This 24-day study tested heatwaves' effect with distinct duration and recovery periods on benthic estuarine communities' diversity and contribution to ecosystem functioning experimentally. The communities were obtained from a temperate...

Comparing temporal patterns of distribution and abundance of target organisms between protected and harvested shores is essential to assess the extant effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) and whether it is maintained through time. By means of an adapted Beyond-BACI approach, we compared the short- and long-term patterns of variation in th...

Short-term effects of pCO 2 (700-380 ppm; HC-LC) and nitrate content (50-5 M; HN-LC) on photosynthesis, estimated by different pulse amplitude modulated (PAMs) fluorometers and by oxygen evolution, were investigated in Ulva rigida (Chlorophyta) under solar radiation (ex-situ) and in the laboratory under artificial light (in-situ). After 6-days of...

As a consequence of global warming, extreme events, such as marine heatwaves (MHW), have been increasing in frequency and intensity with negative effects on aquatic organisms. This innovative study evaluated for the first time, the immunological and physiological response of the estuarine edible bivalve Scrobicularia plana to different heatwaves, w...

Alterations of the physical-chemical properties of the oceans due to anthropogenic activities are, at present, one of the most concerning environmental issues studied by researchers. One of these issues is ocean acidification, mainly caused by overproduction and release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from anthropogenic sources. Another component of enviro...

Increasing water CO2, aquatic hypercapnia, leads to higher physiological pCO2 levels in fish, resulting in an acidosis and compensatory acid-base regulatory response. Senegalese sole is currently farmed in super-intensive recirculating water systems where significant accumulation of CO2 in the water may occur. Moreover, anthropogenic releases of CO...

Herbivory plays a major role in shaping community dynamics across freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats, by controlling patterns of abundance and distribution of primary producers, including seaweeds. In the context of biological invasions, the proliferation of non-native seaweeds has been often attributed to limited grazing by native herbivo...

Most of the biodiversity studies in the South European Atlantic Shelf ecoregion are limited to shallow subtidal or intertidal habitats, while deeper reef habitats, also of relevant ecological importance, are particularly understudied. Macroalgal communities, associated fauna, and sea surface temperature were studied in deep reefs (25–30 m) at two l...

Coastal ecosystems are subjected to multiple co-occurring anthropogenic stressors which potentially interact to produce complex impacts on the structure and functioning of biological communities. Seagrass meadows are among the most rapidly declining coastal habitats on Earth. In particular, high nutrient loadings, enhanced sedimentation and competi...

Predictions concerning biological responses to climate change are based primarily on environmental tolerances of individual species. However, biological interactions and the way these may be altered by changes in climate can also be important drivers of ecological change. A combination of observational and experimental studies was conducted to test...

Interactions in the Marine Benthos - edited by Stephen J. Hawkins August 2019

World's oceans are warming, and recent studies suggest that the Iberian upwelling system may be weakening. To understand the potential consequences of both trends, six intertidal seaweeds that recently followed opposite upward and downward abundance shifts in the Iberian upwelling region were exposed for six weeks to conditions simulating present a...

Global warming is driving shifts in the geographical distribution of seaweeds, such as the contraction of the Southern limit of cold-temperate Atlantic macroalgae, including the foundation intertidal fucoid Fucus serratus. However, the ecophysiological mechanisms explaining the decline of seaweeds is not fully understood. In vivo chlorophyll a fluo...

Paracentrotus lividus gonads are gastronomic delicacies widely appreciated in Europe. Two commercially exploited populations of sea urchins were characterized, for the first time, in terms of gonad quality (market-related traits such as colour, texture and nutritional value) and safety (contaminants levels) to define the best season for harvesting...

Plastics is all the rage, and mitigating marine litter is topping the agenda for nations pushing issues such as ocean acidification, or even climate change, away from the public consciousness. We are personally directly affected by plastics and charismatic megafauna is dying from it, and it is something that appears to be doable. So, who cares abou...

We aimed to show how the predicted pH decrease in the ocean would alter the toxicity, bioconcentration and dietary transfer of trace metal copper on seagrass ecosystems, on a short-term basis. Seagrass Zostera noltei was exposed to two pH levels (8.36 and 8.03) and three copper levels (nominal concentrations, <3, 30 and 300 μg Cu L ⁻¹ ) in a factor...

Sea urchin population harvest in the North Atlantic coast of Portugal was characterized in terms of gonad yield, nutritional composition and important market-related traits, over one reproductive cycle (March 2016 to March 2017). Most of the quality attributes showed a seasonal variation strongly dependent on sea urchin sex. Maximum gonad yield (18...

Climate change and pharmaceutical contamination are two priority research topics due to their impacts in the aquatic ecosystems and in the food chain structure. In the bottom of many food chains are the invertebrates, like the amphipods, which are important environmental and ecotoxicological models. In this study, we combined the increase of temper...

Paracentrotus lividus is a common and intensely harvested sea urchin at several European locations, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The increasing human pressure on this resource due to the growing demand and market value of sea urchin gonads as seafood raises concerns on the ecological sustainabilit...

Habitat-forming species sustain biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in harsh environments through the amelioration of physical stress. Nonetheless, their role in shaping patterns of species distribution under future climate scenarios is generally overlooked. Focusing on coastal systems, we assess how habitat-forming species can influence the abi...

Field evidence is essential to assess the consequences of climate change but a solid causal link often requires additional information obtained under controlled laboratory conditions. Additionally, the functional response to temperature may also help to discriminate species potentially more vulnerable to warming. Using a highly resolved temperature...

Innate immune status of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus population from two different rocky shore beaches in the northern Portuguese coast was evaluated for a period of one year. Although some ecological studies regarding the effect of toxics on the immune parameters of the sea urchin were made in Portuguese waters, there is a current lack of...

Freshwater bivalves have suffered major global declines, being the introduction of invasive alien species (IAS) an important, but not well studied, mechanism of threat. This study assessed the predator-prey relationship between two non-native crayfish species (Procambarus clarkii and Pacifastacus leniusculus) and three native (Anodonta anatina, Pot...

Poor physiological acclimatization to climate change has led to shifts in the distributional ranges of various species and to biodiversity loss. However, evidence also suggests the relevance of non-climatic physical factors, such as light, and biotic factors, which may act in interactive or additive way. We used a mechanistic approach to evaluate t...

Manifestations of climate change can be found in subtle shifts in environmental conditions, such as sea level rise, melting glaciers or changing oceanic acidity due to atmospheric CO 2 uptake. Over the past two decades, a great deal of media production has focused on informing the public about scientific discoveries about the health of the ocean an...

Determining the causes of variation in community assembly is a central question in ecology. Analysis of β-diversity can provide insight by relating the extent of regional to local variation in diversity, allowing inference of the relative importance of deterministic versus stochastic processes. We investigated the effects of disturbance timing on c...

Given the lack of knowledge regarding climate change-chemical exposure interactions, it is vital to evaluate how these two drivers jointly impact aquatic species. Thus, for the first time, we aimed at investigating the combined effects of increased temperature, pCO2 and the synthetic progestin levonorgestrel on survival, growth, consumption rate an...

There is evidence that some seaweeds are changing their abundance and range along the North Atlantic in recent years, and climatic drivers are often invoked as potential culprits for these changes. In the particular case of north-west Iberia, recent decadal changes in the frequency of occurrence of several intertidal perennial seaweeds coincided wi...

Macroalgae are important providers of habitat and food to many organism. In recent years, changes in the abundance and distribution of some seaweeds have been detected all over the world. These changes have been mainly attributed to global warming. In NW Iberia, decadal changes in the frequency of occurrence of several intertidal perennial seaweeds...

Anthropogenic-mediated disturbances can induce major effects on the structure and functioning of natural systems. Understanding how stressors jointly interact to impact ecosystems has become a central interest to ecological researchers. In this study, we investigated the potential synergies between two recognised threats to the marine environment:...

Partitioning the effects of herbivory on different life stages of primary producers is key to understanding the population-wide consequences of herbivory. We assessed the performance of microscopic (MiS <1 mm) juveniles, macroscopic (MaS) juveniles and adult kelp (Laminaria ochroleuca) under contrasting herbivory regimes through a herbivore exclusi...

In the last 2 decades, concerns regarding the effects of global loss of diversity have prompted considerable research on the functional consequences of biodiversity. In this context, a new perception of biodiversity as a major regulator of the functioning of ecosystems has emerged. The concept of biodiversity has a wide meaning and includes not onl...

The recent increase in anthropogenic disturbances is impacting marine ecosystems both locally and globally. In the particular case of seaweeds, several studies have documented changes in abundance and distribution in the Northeast Atlantic that seem linked with global warming trends described for the last 40 years. Similar decadal changes in the fr...

In the future, continuous rise in the levels of atmospheric CO2, along with concomitant increases in temperatures, will lead to alterations in global climate with consequent effects on marine ecosystems. By regulating top-down in a critical trophic level, macroalgae-herbivore interactions play a key role in shaping marine community structures. Taki...

Understanding the consequences of fragmentation of coastal habitats is an important topic of discussion in marine ecology. Research on the effects of fragmentation has revealed complex and context-dependent biotic responses, which prevent generalizations across different habitats or study organisms. The effects of fragmentation in marine environmen...

The latitudinal distribution of species is primarily driven by physical factors, particularly temperature. However, several studies suggest the importance of non-climatic physical stressors, such as irradiance, which may interact synergistically with temperature as unexpected de leterious effects or, alternatively, as additive factors. We performed...

Hundreds of macroalgal species have been spread outside their natural range by human activities, and many of these introductions are occurring at a worldwide scale. This review considers one of the best-studied and most widespread invasive macroalgae, Sargassum muticum, to determine the traits and processes important in marine invasions and to iden...

Kelp communities are in decline in many regions. Detecting and addressing population declines require knowledge of patterns of spatial and temporal variation in the distribution and abundance of kelps and their associated organisms. We quantified kelp and associated macroalgal assemblages three times over a period of 2 years, at three regions along...

The ecological role of wrack as a habitat-forming species for beach macrofauna was investigated by experimental manipulation of 2 macroalgal species: Laminaria ochroleuca Bachelot de la Pylaie, 1824, and Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt. Both species are abundant in rocky bed communities, and commonly found shaping wrack patches on Atlantic sandy...

Las macroalgas marinas son los principales productores primarios de las zonas rocosas del litoral Atlántico. Las especies dominantes que forman dosel, algas pardas como las Fucales intermareales y las Laminariales sublitorales, así como algas rojas como las del género Gelidium y Chondrus crispus configuran en la Península Ibérica y en las Islas Can...

The allocation of resources to different life-history traits should represent the best compromise in fitness investment for organisms in their local environment. When resources are limiting, the investment in a specific trait must carry a cost that is expressed in trade-offs with other traits.In this study, the relative investment in the fitness re...

Connectivity between ecosystems is of ecological relevance, especially when adjacent areas of contrasting productivity are compared. High-productive rocky shores dominated by macroalgae are one of the most important sources of wrack subsidies linked to low-productive sandy beaches. Rocky bed communities from nearshore environments are affected by s...

Predation is one of the most important factors in determining structure and dynamics of communities on intertidal rocky shores. Such regulatory role may be of special relevance in novel communities resulting from biological invasions. Non-indigenous species frequently escape natural predators that limit their distribution and abundance in the nativ...

Kelp communities are in decline in many regions. Detecting and addressing population declines require knowledge of patterns of spatial and temporal variation in the distribution and abundance of kelps and their associated organisms. We quantified kelp and associated macroalgal assemblages three times over a period of 2 years, at three regions along...

Biological invasions, nutrient enrichment and ocean warming are known to threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The independent effects of these ecological stressors are well studied, however, we lack understanding of their cumulative effects, which may be additive, antagonistic or synergistic. For example, the impacts of biological invas...

Disturbance and the subsequent rate and pattern of recovery have long been recognised as important drivers of community structure. Community recovery is affected by processes operating at local and regional scales, yet the examination of community-level responses to a standardised disturbance at regional scales (i.e. among regions under different e...

Three macroalgal species belonging to Chlorophyta (Ulva rigida), Rhodophyta (Ellisolandia elongata) and Phaeophyceae (Heterokontophyta; Cystoseira tamariscifolia), naturally growing at the same shore level and representing 3 morpho-functional groups, were exposed to short-term changes in temperature under different carbon and nitrogen regimes. Expe...