Growth Resilience of Subarctic Rhodoliths (Lithothamnion glaciale, Rhodophyta) to Chronic Low Sea Temperature and irradiance.

Rhodolith beds are pervasive marine biological systems in the subarctic North Atlantic. Limited knowledge about effects of temperature and irradiance on rhodolith growth limits the ability to anticipate the response of rhodolith beds to this ocean's chronic low, yet changing sea temperature and irradiance regimes. We carried out a 149‐d laboratory experiment with Newfoundland Lithothamnion glaciale rhodoliths to test the predictions that growth (i) is inhibited at temperatures of ~0.5°C and (ii) resumes as temperature increases above 0.5°C, albeit at a higher rate under high than low irradiances. Rhodoliths were grown in experimental tanks at near‐zero (~0.7°C) seawater temperatures during the first 85 d and at temperatures increasing naturally to ~6°C for the remaining 64 d. Rhodoliths in those tanks were exposed to either low (0.02 mol photons·m−2·d−1) or high (0.78 mol photons·m−2·d−1) irradiances during the entire experiment. Rhodoliths grew at a linear rate of ~281 μm·year−1 (0.77 μm·d−1) throughout the experiment under both irradiance treatments despite daily seawater temperature variation of up to 3°C. Near‐zero temperatures of ~0.5 to 1.0°C did not inhibit rhodolith growth. Model selection showed that PAR‐day (a cumulative irradiance index) was a better predictor of growth variation than Degree‐day (a cumulative thermal index). Our findings extend to ~0.5°C the lower limit of the known temperature range (~1 to at least 16°C) over which growth in L. glaciale rhodoliths remains unaffected, while suggesting that the growth–irradiance relationship in low‐light environments at temperatures below 6°C is less irradiance‐driven than recently proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]