Metabolic traits and thresholds to inform marine ecological conservation and restoration

The combined effects of anthropogenic pressures and climate change pose significant threats to key habitat-forming species, such as seagrasses. Understanding species' responses to environmental stressors and identifying their tolerance thresholds are essential for effective conservation and restoration efforts in coastal environments. Through a mesocosm experiment, we assessed Posidonia oceanica's metabolic responses under ecologically realistic conditions across three seasonal periods (February-March, June-July, and October-November) when plants were naturally acclimated to different temperature regimes. Within each period, we tested plant responses to small temperature variations (ambient and two increasing steps of 2°C) crossed with four turbidity levels (0-34 mg/L), enabling construction of ecologically realistic thermal performance curves. Our findings reveal that turbidity may impair P. oceanica functioning, including decreased thermal performance and narrowed thermal toleran..., , , # Metabolic traits and thresholds to inform marine ecological conservation and restoration

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qfttdz0sv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qfttdz0sv)

## Description of the data and file structure

The experiments aimed to assess the physiological responses of *Posidonia oceanica* under ecologically realistic conditions by exposing the plants to different temperature regimes and sediment-induced turbidity. A total of 324 healthy shoots were collected (108 per seasonal period, with 9 shoots per treatment combination). After acclimation in the laboratory, the plants were tested under controlled conditions to evaluate oxygen metabolism and photosynthetic performance.

### Files and variables

#### File: Data\_JAPPL-2024-00618.R3.xlsx

**Description:** The Excel file contains the data used to perform the analyses presented in the research article.

##### Variables

* time = Treatment exprosure time, t1 = 2 days,t2 = 7 days
* temp = Temperature (°C)
* turb = Turbidit...,