Multi-level Approaches to assess Climate Change Impact to Marine Organisms

MACCIMO aims to assess the effect of climate change on sessile marine invertebrates, the organisms mostly affected by environmental pressures due to their reduced motility. The proposed approach involves experimental exposure of the targeted organisms to combined temperature and low pH gradients, in order to simulate the synergistic impact of naturally occurring stressors. 

The overall objectives of the proposed research project are: 

(a) To implement an integrative approach for the estimation of climate change impact on different marine invertebrate taxa with partial or low motility.

(b) To examine the different mechanisms – molecular and physiological– activated to cope with the imposed stress factors, as well as to investigate the alterations in structural morphology and associated microsymbiotic communities.

(c) To study intra-species variation in response to thermal and oxidative challenges, in order to unravel the potential diversity of adaptations in geographically distinct populations.