Data from: Response diversity in Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages facing climate change: Insights from a multispecific thermotolerance experiment

Climate change threatens coastal benthic communities on a global scale.
However, the potential effects of ongoing warming on mesophotic temperate
reefs at the community level remain poorly understood. Investigating how
different members of these communities will respond to the future expected
environmental conditions is, therefore, key to anticipating their future
trajectories and developing specific management and conservation
strategies. Here, we examined the responses of some of the main components
of the highly diverse Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages to thermal
stress. We performed thermotolerance experiments with different
temperature treatments (from 26 to 29°C) with 10 species from different
phyla (three anthozoans, six sponges and one ascidian) and different
structural roles. Overall, we observed species‐specific contrasting
responses to warming regardless of phyla or growth form. Moreover, the
responses ranged from highly resistant species to sensitive species and
were mostly in agreement with previous field observations from mass
mortality events (MMEs) linked to Mediterranean marine heat waves. Our
results unravel the diversity of responses to warming in coralligenous
outcrops and suggest the presence of potential winners and losers in the
face of climate change. Finally, this study highlights the importance of
accounting for species‐specific vulnerabilities and response diversity
when forecasting the future trajectories of temperate benthic communities
in a warming ocean.