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The atmosphere concentration of CO2 is steadily increasing and causing climate change. To achieve the Paris 1.5 or 2 oC target, negative emissions technologies must be deployed in addition to reducing carbon emissions. The ocean is a large carbon sink but the potential of marine primary producers to contribute to carbon neutrality remains unclear. Here we review the alterations to carbon capture and sequestration of marine primary producers (including traditional ‘blue carbon’ plants, microalgae, and macroalgae) in the Anthropocene, and, for the first time, assess and compare the potential of various marine primary producers to carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation via biogeoengineering approaches. The contributions of marine primary producers to carbon sequestration have been decreasing in the Anthropocene due to the decrease in biomass driven by direct anthropogenic activities and climate change. The potential of blue carbon plants (mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses) is limited by the available areas for their revegetation. Microalgae appear to have a large potential due to their ubiquity but how to enhance their carbon sequestration efficiency is very complex and uncertain. On the other hand, macroalgae can play an essential role in mitigating climate change through extensive offshore cultivation due to higher carbon sequestration capacity and substantial available areas. This approach seems both technically and economically feasible due to the development of offshore aquaculture and a well-established market for macroalgal products. Synthesis and applications: This paper provides new insights and suggests promising directions for utilizing marine primary producers to achieve the Paris temperature target. We propose that macroalgae cultivation can play an essential role in attaining carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation, although its ecological impacts need to be assessed further. To calculate the parameters presented in Table 1, the relevant keywords "mangroves, salt marshes, macroalgae, microalgae, global area, net primary productivity, CO2 sequestration" were searched through the ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar in July 2021. Recent data published after 2010 were collected and used since area and productivity of plants change with decade. For data with limited availability, such as net primary productivity (NPP) of seagrasses and global area and NPP of wild macroalgae, data collection was extended back to 1980. Total NPP and CO2 sequestration for mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses and wild macroalgae were obtained by the multiplication of area and NPP/CO2 sequestration density and subjected to error propagation analysis. Data were expressed as means ± standard error.

Patterns of movement of marine species can reflect strategies of reproduction and dispersal, species’ interactions, trophodynamics, and susceptibility to change, and thus critically inform how we manage populations and ecosystems. On coral reefs, the density and diversity of metazoan taxa is greatest in dead coral and rubble, which is suggested to fuel food webs from the bottom-up. Yet, biomass and secondary productivity in rubble is predominantly available in some of the smallest individuals, limiting how accessible this energy is to higher trophic levels. We address the bioavailability of motile coral reef cryptofauna based on small-scale patterns of emigration in rubble. We deployed modified RUbble Biodiversity Samplers (RUBS) and emergence traps in a shallow rubble patch at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, to detect community-level differences in the directional influx of motile cryptofauna under five habitat accessibility regimes. The mean density (0.13–4.5 ind.cm-3) and biomass (0.14–5.2 mg.cm-3) of cryptofauna were high and varied depending on microhabitat accessibility. Emergent zooplankton represented a distinct community (dominated by the Appendicularia and Calanoida) with the lowest density and biomass, indicating constraints on nocturnal resource availability. Mean cryptofauna density and biomass were greatest when interstitial access within rubble was blocked, driven by the rapid proliferation of small harpacticoid copepods from the rubble surface, leading to trophic simplification. Individuals with high biomass (e.g., decapods, gobies, and echinoderms) were greatest when interstitial access within rubble was unrestricted. Treatments with a closed rubble surface did not differ from those completely open, suggesting that top-down predation does not diminish rubble-derived resources. Our results show that conspecific cues and species’ interactions (e.g., competition and predation) within rubble are most critical in shaping ecological outcomes within the cryptobiome. These findings have implications for prey accessibility through trophic and community size structuring in rubble, which may become increasingly relevant as benthic reef complexity shifts in the Anthropocene. We address the bioavailability of coral reef cryptofauna in rubble based on small-scale patterns of emigration. We adapted the accessibility of Rubble Biodiversity Samplers (RUBS), models used to standardise biodiversity sampling in rubble (Wolfe and Mumby 2020), to explore the local movement patterns of rubble-dwelling fauna, with inference to predation processes within and beyond the cryptobenthos. Five treatments were developed to detect community-level differences in the directional influx of motile cryptofauna under various habitat accessibility regimes. Four of these treatments were developed by modifying accessibility into RUBS (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4176644/files) to understand limitations on the directional influx and movement of cryptofauna within coral rubble patches using four treatments; (1) open (completely accessible), (2) interstitial access (top closed), (3) surficial access (sides and bottom closed), and (4) raised (above rubble substratum). The fifth treatment involved a series of emergence plankton traps, designed to target demersal cryptofauna that vertically migrate from within the rubble benthos at night, given emergent zooplankton biomass and diversity are greatest at night. Fieldwork was conducted over several weeks (11th September to 5th October 2021) in a shallow (~3–5 m depth) reef slope site on the southern margin of Heron Island (-23˚26.845’ S, 151˚54.732’ E), Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Fig. 1). All collections were conducted under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority permit G20/44613.1.

Poleward range extensions by warm-adapted sea urchins are switching temperate marine ecosystems from kelp-dominated to barren-dominated systems that favour the establishment of range-extending tropical fishes. Yet, such tropicalization may be buffered by ocean acidification, which reduces urchin grazing performance and the urchin barrens that tropical range-extending fishes prefer. Using ecosystems experiencing natural warming and acidification, we show that ocean acidification could buffer warming-facilitated tropicalization by reducing urchin populations (by 87%) and inhibiting the formation of barrens. This buffering effect of CO2 enrichment was observed at natural CO2 vents that are associated with a shift from a barren-dominated to a turf-dominated state, which we found is less favourable to tropical fishes. Together, these observations suggest that ocean acidification may buffer the tropicalization effect of ocean warming against urchin barren formation via multiple processes (fewer urchins and barrens) and consequently slow the increasing rate of tropicalization of temperate fish communities. In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2021) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2021-07-26.

# Coral reef state influences resilience to acute climate-mediated disturbances\_Table S1 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57gz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57gz) The dataset provides a summary of all publications included in the analysis for this study and the key statistics obtained from the studies and used in the analyses. The dataset includes details about the publication, spatial identifiers (e.g. realm, province, ecoregion) unique site code, information on the disturbance type and timing, the pre-and post-disturbance coral cover, the 5-year annual recovery rate, the recovery shape and recovery completeness classifications. Please see details Methods in the journal article "Coral reef state influences resilience to acute climate-mediated disturbances" as published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. ## Description of the data and file structure Each column provides the following information: | Column | Detail | | ------ | ------ | | Realm | All studies were assigned to an ‘ecoregion’, ‘province’ and ‘realm’ based on their spatial location in Spalding et al. (2007)’s spatial classification system for coastal and shelf waters. | | Province | All studies were assigned to an ‘ecoregion’, ‘province’ and ‘realm’ based on their spatial location in Spalding et al. (2007)’s spatial classification system for coastal and shelf waters. | | Ecoregion | All studies were assigned to an ‘ecoregion’, ‘province’ and ‘realm’ based on their spatial location in Spalding et al. (2007)’s spatial classification system for coastal and shelf waters. | | Unique study identifier | Unique identifiers for the lowest sampling unit in the dataset. In cases where there were data for different regions, reefs, islands/atolls, sites, reef zones, depths, and/or multiple disturbances within a publication or time-series, data from these publications were divided into separate ‘studies’. | | Publication/Dataset | Unique identifiers for the publication or dataset (generally the surname of the first author followed by the year of publication). | | Publication title | Title of the publication or dataset from which the data were sourced. | | Publication year | Year the publication from the which the data were sourced was published. | | Country/Territory | Name of the country or location from which the data came. | | Site latitude | Latitude of the study site from where the data came. | | Site longitude | Longitude of the study site from where the data came. | | Disturbance type | Classification of disturbance: Temperature stress, Cyclone/ severe storm, Runoff or Multiple. | | Disturbance.year | Year of the disturbance. | | Mean coral cover pre-disturbance | Pre-disturbance coral cover as extracted from the publication or dataset as the closest data point prior to disturbance. If there is an NA value in this column then there was no pre-disturbance data available and a measure of impact was not calculated. | | Mean coral cover post-disturbance | Post-disturbance coral cover as extracted from the publication or dataset as the closest data point prior to disturbance. If there is an NA value in this column then there was no pre-disturbance data available and a measure of impact was not calculated. | | Impact (lnRR) | Impact measure: the log response ratio of pre- to post-disturbance percentage coral cover. If there is an NA value in this column then there was no pre-disturbance data available and a measure of impact was not calculated. | | Time-averaged recovery rate | Recovery rate as percentage coral cover per year in the approximate 5-year time window following disturbance. See main Methods text in manuscript for more detail. If there is an NA value in this column then the available time-series following disturbance did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in the calculation of recovery rate. | | Recovery shape | Recovery shape category: linear, accelerating, decelerating, logistic, flatline or null. If there is an NA value in this column then the available time-series following disturbance did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in classification of recovery shape. | | Recovery completeness | Recovery completeness category: complete recovery – coral is observed to reach its pre-disturbance coral cover, signs of recovery – a positive trajectory but not reaching pre-disturbance cover in the time period examined, undetermined – no clear pattern in recovery, the null model was the top model, no recovery – the null model was the top model but the linear model had slope and standard error in slope near zero and further decline – the top model had a negative trend. If there is an NA value in this column then the available time-series following disturbance did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in classification of recovery shape. | | Reference | Source for the data. | ## Sharing/Access information Data was derived from the following sources: **Appendix 1. Full list of references providing the data used in impact and recovery analyses supporting Table S1** Arceo, H. O., Quibilan, M. C., Aliño, P. M., Lim, G., & Licuanan, W. Y. (2001). Coral bleaching in Philippine reefs: Coincident evidences with mesoscale thermal anomalies. Bulletin of Marine Science, 69(2), 579-593. Aronson, R. B., Precht, W. F., Toscano, M. A., & Koltes, K. H. (2002). The 1998 bleaching event and its aftermath on a coral reef in Belize. Marine Biology, 141(3), 435-447. Aronson, R. B., Sebens, K. P., & Ebersole, J. P. (1994). Hurricane Hugo's impact on Salt River submarine canyon, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. 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Rapid decline and decadal-scale recovery of corals and Chaetodon butterflyfish on Philippine coral reefs. Marine Biology, 164(1). Ruzicka, R. R., Colella, M. A., Porter, J. W., Morrison, J. M., Kidney, J. A., Brinkhuis, V., . . . Colee, J. (2013). Temporal changes in benthic assemblages on Florida Keys reefs 11 years after the 1997/1998 El Niño. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 489, 125-141. Sheppard, C. R. C. (1999). Coral decline and weather patterns over 20 years in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Ambio, 28(6), 472-478. Shulman, M. J., & Robertson, D. R. (1996). Changes in the coral reefs of San Bias, Caribbean Panama: 1983 to 1990. Coral Reefs, 15(4), 231-236. Smith, T. B., Brandt, M. E., Calnan, J. M., Nemeth, R. S., Blondeau, J., Kadison, E., . . . Rothenberger, P. (2013). Convergent mortality responses of Caribbean coral species to seawater warming. Ecosphere, 4(7). Steneck, R. S., Arnold, S. N., Boenish, R., de León, R., Mumby, P. J., Rasher, D. B., & Wilson, M. W. (2019). Managing Recovery Resilience in Coral Reefs Against Climate-Induced Bleaching and Hurricanes: A 15 Year Case Study From Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6(265). Stobart, B., Teleki, K., Buckley, R., Downing, N., & Callow, M. (2005). Coral recovery at Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles: Five years after the 1998 bleaching event. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 363(1826), 251-255. Torda, G., Sambrook, K., Cross, P., Sato, Y., Bourne, D. G., Lukoschek, V., . . . Willis, B. L. (2018). Decadal erosion of coral assemblages by multiple disturbances in the Palm Islands, central Great Barrier Reef. Scientific Reports, 8(1). Trapon, M. L., Pratchett, M. S., & Penin, L. (2011). Comparative effects of different disturbances in coral reef habitats in Moorea, French Polynesia. Journal of Marine Biology, 2011. Tsounis, G., & Edmunds, P. J. (2017). 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Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005. Wismer, S., Tebbett, S. B., Streit, R. P., & Bellwood, D. R. (2019). Spatial mismatch in fish and coral loss following 2016 mass coral bleaching. Science of the Total Environment, 650, 1487-1498. Woolsey, E., Bainbridge, S. J., Kingsford, M. J., & Byrne, M. (2012). Impacts of cyclone Hamish at One Tree Reef: Integrating environmental and benthic habitat data. Marine Biology, 159(4), 793-803. Aim: Understand the interplay between resistance and recovery on coral reefs, and investigate dependence on pre- and post-disturbance states, to inform generalisable reef resilience theory across large spatial and temporal scales. Location: Tropical coral reefs globally. Time period: 1966 to 2017. Major taxa studied: Scleratinian hard corals. Methods: We conducted a literature search to compile a global dataset of total coral cover before and after acute storms, temperature stress, and coastal runoff from flooding events. We used meta-regression to identify variables that explained significant variation in disturbance impact, including disturbance type, year, depth, and pre-disturbance coral cover. We further investigated the influence of these same variables, as well as post-disturbance coral cover and disturbance impact, on recovery rate. We examined the shape of recovery, assigning qualitatively distinct, ecologically relevant, population growth trajectories: linear, logistic, logarithmic (decelerating), and a second-order quadratic (accelerating). Results: We analysed 427 disturbance impacts and 117 recovery trajectories. Accelerating and logistic were the most common recovery shapes, underscoring non-linearities and recovery lags. A complex but meaningful relationship between the state of a reef pre- and post-disturbance, disturbance impact magnitude, and recovery rate was identified. Fastest recovery rates were predicted for intermediate to large disturbance impacts, but a decline in this rate was predicted when more than ~75% of pre-disturbance cover was lost. We identified a shifting baseline, with declines in both pre-and post-disturbance coral cover over the 50 year study period. Main conclusions: We breakdown the complexities of coral resilience, showing interplay between resistance and recovery, as well as dependence on both pre- and post-disturbance states, alongside documenting a chronic decline in these states. This has implications for predicting coral reef futures and implementing actions to enhance resilience. The dataset provides a summary of all studies included in the analysis and the key statistics obtained from the studies and used in the analyses for the manuscript entitled "Coral reef state influences resilience to acute climate-mediated disturbances" as published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. The dataset includes details about the publication, spatial identifiers (e.g. realm, province, ecoregion) unique site code, information on the disturbance type and timing, the pre-and post-disturbance coral cover, the 5-year annual recovery rate, the recovery shape and recovery completeness classifications. Please see details Methods in the journal article "Coral reef state influences resilience to acute climate-mediated disturbances" as published in Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Image dataset used for a colour analysis of coral branches throughout a long-term marine heatwave emulation experiment using machine learning. Article: "Within population variability in coral heat tolerance indicates climate adaptation potential" by Humanes and Lachs et al. Code to analyse the dataset is found at 10.5281/zenodo.6256164. LL received funding from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) ONE Planet Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/S007512/1).

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have wide-ranging environmental impacts, including on aquatic species of social and commercial importance. In New Zealand (NZ), strategic growth of the aquaculture industry could be adversely affected by the occurrence of HABs. This review examines HAB species which are known to bloom both globally and in NZ and their effects on commercially important shellfish and fish species. Blooms of Karenia spp. have frequently been associated with mortalities of both fish and shellfish in NZ and the sub-lethal effects of other genera, notably Alexandrium spp., on shellfish (which includes paralysis, a lack of byssus production, and reduced growth) are also of concern. Climate change and anthropogenic impacts may alter HAB population structure and dynamics, as well as the physiological responses of fish and shellfish, potentially further compromising aquatic species. Those HAB species which have been detected in NZ and have the potential to bloom and harm marine life in the future are also discussed. The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) and relevant bioassays are practical tools which enable early detection of novel, problem HAB species and rapid toxin/HAB screening, and new data from HAB monitoring of aquaculture production sites using eDNA are presented. As aquaculture grows to supply a sizable proportion of the world’s protein, the effects of HABs in reducing productivity is of increasing significance. Research into the multiple stressor effects of climate change and HABs on cultured species and using local, recent, HAB strains is needed to accurately assess effects and inform stock management strategies.

As atmospheric levels of CO(2) increase, reef-building corals are under greater stress from both increased sea surface temperatures and declining sea water pH. To date, most studies have focused on either coral bleaching due to warming oceans or declining calcification due to decreasing oceanic carbonate ion concentrations. Here, through the use of physiology measurements and cDNA microarrays, we show that changes in pH and ocean chemistry consistent with two scenarios put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) drive major changes in gene expression, respiration, photosynthesis and symbiosis of the coral, Acropora millepora, before affects on biomineralisation are apparent at the phenotype level. Under high CO(2) conditions corals at the phenotype level lost over half their Symbiodinium populations, and had a decrease in both photosynthesis and respiration. Changes in gene expression were consistent with metabolic suppression, an increase in oxidative stress, apoptosis and symbiont loss. Other expression patterns demonstrate upregulation of membrane transporters, as well as the regulation of genes involved in membrane cytoskeletal interactions and cytoskeletal remodeling. These widespread changes in gene expression emphasize the need to expand future studies of ocean acidification to include a wider spectrum of cellular processes, many of which may occur before impacts on calcification.

[Experimental design: thermal performance experiments] All experiments were run in climate-controlled incubation facilities of the Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats (Mallorca, Spain). Following 48 hrs under ambient (collection site) conditions, samples were transferred to individual experimental aquaria, which consisted of a double layered transparent plastic bag filled with 2 L of filtered seawater (60 μm) (following Savva et al. 2018). 16 experimental bags were suspended within 80L temperature-controlled baths. In total, ten baths were used, one for each experimental temperature treatment. Bath temperatures were initially set to the acclimatization temperature (i.e. in situ temperatures) and were subsequently increased or decreased by 1 °C every 24 hours until the desired experimental temperature was achieved. Experimental temperatures were: 15, 18, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 and 36°C (Table S2). For each species, four replicate aquarium bags were used for each temperature treatment with three individually marked seagrass shoots or three algal fragments placed into each bag. For P. oceanica, each marked plant was a single shoot including leaves, vertical rhizome and roots. For C. nodosa, each marked individual consisted of a 10 cm fragment of horizontal rhizome containing three vertical shoots. Individually marked seaweeds contained the holdfast, and 4-5 fronds of P. pavonica (0.98 ± 0.06 g FW; mean ± SE) or a standardised 5-8 cm fragment with meristematic tip for C. compressa (3.67 ± 0.1 g FW; mean ± SE). Experimental plants were cleaned of conspicuous epiphytes. Once the targeted temperatures were reached in all of the baths, experiments ran for 14 days for the algal species and 21 days for seagrasses to allow for measurable growth in all species at the end of the experiment. Experiments were conducted inside a temperature-controlled chamber at constant humidity and air temperature (15 °C). Bags were arranged in a 4x4 grid within each bath, enabling four species/population treatments to be run simultaneously. Bags were mixed within each bath so that one replicate bag was in each row and column of the grid, to minimise any potential within bath effects of bag position. Replicate bags were suspended with their surface kept open to allow gas exchange and were illuminated with a 14h light:10h dark photoperiod through fluorescent aquarium growth lamps. The water within the bags were mixed with aquaria pumps. The light intensity within each bag was measured via a photometric bulb sensor (LI-COR) and ranged between 180-258 μmol m-2 s-1. Light intensity was constant between experiments and did not significantly differ between experimental treatments (p > 0.05). The temperature in the baths was controlled and recorded with an IKS-AQUASTAR system, which was connected to heaters and thermometers. The seawater within the bags was renewed every 72 hrs and salinity was monitored daily with an YSI multi-parameter meter. Distilled water was added when necessary to ensure salinity levels remained within the range of 36-39 PSU, typical of the study region. Carbon and Nitrogen concentrations in the leaf tissue were measured at the end of the experiment for triplicates of the 24ºC treatment for each species and location (Fig. S2) at Unidade de Técnicas Instrumentais de Análise (University of Coruña, Spain) with an elemental analyser FlashEA112 (ThermoFinnigan). [Species description and distribution] The species used in this study are all common species throughout the Mediterranean Sea, although differ in their biological traits, evolutionary histories and thermo-geographic affinities (Fig. S1). P. oceanica is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea with the all other Posidonia species found in temperate Australia (Aires et al. 2011). The distribution of P. oceanica is restricted to the Mediterranean, spanning from Gibraltar in the west to Cyprus in the east and north into the Aegean and Adriatic seas (Telesca et al. 2015) (Fig. S1A). C. nodosa distribution extends across the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean, where it is found from south west Portugal, down the African coast to Mauritania and west to Macaronesia (Alberto et al. 2008) (Fig. S1B). Congeneric species of C. nodosa are found in tropical waters of the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific, suggesting origins in the region at least prior to the closure of the Suez Isthmus, approximately 10Mya. Like C. nodosa, Cystoseira compressa has a distribution that extends across the Mediterranean and into the eastern Atlantic, where it is found west to Macaronesia and south to northwest Africa (Fig. S1C). The genus Cystoseira has recently been reclassified to include just four species with all congeneric Cystoseira spp. having warm-temperate distributions from the Mediterranean to the eastern Atlantic (Orellana et al. 2019). The distribution of Padina pavonica is conservatively considered to resemble C. nodosa and C. compressa, spanning throughout the Mediterranean and into the eastern Atlantic. We considered the poleward distribution limit of P. pavonica to be the British Isles 50ºN (Herbert et al. 2016). P. pavonica was previously thought to have a global distribution, but molecular analysis of the genus has found no evidence to support this (Silberfeld et al. 2013). Instead it has been suggested that P. pavonica was potentially misclassified outside of the Mediterranean, due to morphological similarity with congeneric species (Silberfeld et al. 2013). Padina is a monophyletic genus with a worldwide distribution from tropical to cold temperate waters (Silberfeld et al. 2013). Most species have a regional distribution, with few confirmed examples of species spanning beyond a single marine realm (sensu Spalding et al. 2007). [Metabolic rates] Net production (NP), gross primary production (GPP) and respiration (R) were measured for all species from the four sites for five different experimental temperatures containing the in-situ temperature during sampling up to a 6ºC warming (see SM Table S3 for details). Individuals of the different species were moved to methacrylate cylinders containing seawater treated with UV radiation to remove bacteria and phytoplankton, in incubation tanks at the 5 selected temperatures. Cylinders were closed using gas-tight lids that prevent gas exchange with the atmosphere, containing an optical dissolved oxygen sensor (ODOS® IKS), with a measuring range from 0-200 % saturation and accuracy at 25ºC of 1% saturation, and magnetic stirrers inserted to ensure mixing along the height of the core. Triplicates were measured for each species and location, along with controls consisting in cylinders filled with the UV-treated seawater, in order to account for any residual production or respiration derived from microorganisms (changes in oxygen in controls was subtracted from treatments). Oxygen was measured continuously and recorded every 15 minutes for 24 hours. Changes in the dissolved oxygen (DO) were assumed to result from the biological metabolic processes and represent NP. During the night, changes in DO are assumed to be driven by R, as in the absence of light, no photosynthetic production can occur. R was calculated from the rate of change in oxygen at night, from half an hour after lights went off to half an hour before light went on (NP in darkness equalled R). NP was calculated from the rate of change in DO, at 15 min intervals, accumulated over each 24 h period. Assuming that daytime R equals that during the night, GPP was estimated as the sum of NP and R. To derive daily metabolic rates, we accumulated individual estimates of GPP, NP, and R resolved at 15 min intervals over each 24 h period during experiments and reported them in mmol O2 m−3 day−1. A detailed description of calculation of metabolic rates can be found at Vaquer-Sunyer et al. (Vaquer-Sunyer et al. 2015). [Thermal distribution and thermal safety margins] We estimated the realised thermal distribution for the four experimental species by downloading occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org (11/03/2020) GBIF Occurrence Download). Occurrence records from GBIF were screened for outliers and distributions were verified from the primary literature (Alberto et al. 2008, Draisma et al. 2010, Ni-Ni-Win et al. 2010, Silberfeld et al. 2013, Telesca et al. 2015, Orellana et al. 2019) and Enrique Ballesteros (pers. comms) (Fig. S1). Mean, 1st and 99th percentiles of daily SST’s were downloaded for each occurrence site for the period between 1981-2019 using the SST products described above (Table S4). Thermal range position of species at each experimental site were standardised by their global distribution using a Range Index (RI; Sagarin & Gaines 2002). Median SST at the experimental collection sites were standardized relative to the thermal range observed across a species realized distribution, using the equation: RI = 2(SM- DM)/DB where SM = the median temperature at the experimental collection site, Dm = the thermal midpoint of the species global thermal distribution and DB = range of median temperatures (ºC) that a species experiences across its distribution. The RI scales from -1 to 1, whereby ‘-1’ represents the cool, leading edge of a species distribution, ‘0’ represents the thermal midpoint of a species distribution and ‘1’ represents the warm, trailing edge of a species distribution (Sagarin & Gaines 2002). Thermal safety margins for each population were calculated as the difference between empirically derived upper thermal limits for each population and the maximum long term habitat temperatures recorded at collection sites. Each population’s thermal safety margin was plotted against its range position to examine patterns in thermal sensitivity across a species distribution. [Growth measurements and statistical analyses] Net growth rate of seagrass shoots was measured using leaf piercing-technique (Short & Duarte 2001). At the beginning of the experiment seagrass shoots were pierced just below the ligule with a syringe needle and shoot growth rate was estimated as the elongation of leaf tissue in between the ligule and the mark position of all leaves in a shoot at the end of the experiment, divided by the experimental duration. Net growth rate of macroalgae individuals was measured as the difference in wet weight at the end of the experiment from the beginning of the experiment divided by the duration of the experiment. Moisture on macroalgae specimens was carefully removed before weighing them. Patterns of growth in response to temperature were examined for each experimental population using a gaussian function: g = ke[-0.5(TMA-μ)2/σ2], where k = amplitude, μ = mean and σ = standard deviation of the curve. Best fit values for each parameter were determined using a non-linear least squares regression using the ‘nlstools’ package (Baty et al. 2015) in R (Team 2020). 95% CI for each of the parameters were calculated using non-parametric bootstrapping of the mean centred residuals. The relationship between growth metrics and the best-fit model was determined by comparing the sum of squared deviations (SS) of the observed data from the model, to the SS of 104 randomly resampled datasets. Growth metrics were considered to display a significant relationship to the best-fit model if the observed SS was smaller than the 5th percentile of randomised SS. Upper thermal limits were defined as the optimal temperature + 2 standard deviations (95th percentile of curve) or where net growth = 0. Samples that had lost all pigment or structural integrity by the end of the experiment were considered dead and any positive growth was treated as zero. Comparative patterns in thermal performance between populations have fundamental implications for a species thermal sensitivity to warming and extreme events. Despite this, within-species variation in thermal performance is seldom measured. Here we compare thermal performance between-species variation within communities, for two species of seagrass (Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa) and two species of seaweed (Padina pavonica and Cystoseira compressa). Experimental populations from four locations spanning approximately 75% of each species global distribution and a 6ºC gradient in summer temperatures were exposed to 10 temperature treatments (15ºC to 36ºC), reflecting median, maximum and future temperatures. Experimental thermal performance displayed the greatest variability between species, with optimal temperatures differing by over 10ºC within the same location. Within-species differences in thermal performance were also important for P. oceanica which displayed large thermal safety margins within cool and warm-edge populations and small safety margins within central populations. Our findings suggest patterns of thermal performance in Mediterranean seagrasses and seaweeds retain deep ‘pre-Mediterranean’ evolutionary legacies, suggesting marked differences in sensitivity to warming within and between benthic marine communities. [Sample collection] Sample collections were conducted at two sites, separated by approximately 1 km, within each location. Collections were conducted at the same depth (1-3 m) at each location and were spaced across the reef or meadow to try and minimise relatedness between shoots or fragments. Upon collection, fragments were placed into a mesh bag and transported back to holding tanks in cool, damp, dark conditions (following Bennett et al. 2021). Fragments were kept in aerated holding tanks in the collection sites at ambient seawater temperature and maintained under a 14:10 light-dark cycle until transport back to Mallorca, where experiments were performed. Prior to transport, P. oceanica shoots were clipped to 25 cm length (from meristem to tip), to standardise initial conditions and remove old tissue for transport. For transport back to Mallorca, fragments were packed in layers within cool-boxes. Cool-packs were wrapped in damp tea towels (rinsed in seawater) and placed between layers of samples. Samples from Catalonia, Crete and Cyprus experienced approximately 12hrs of transit time. On arrival at the destination, samples were returned to holding tanks with aerated seawater and a 14:10 light-dark cycle. [Sea temperature measurements and reconstruction] Sea surface temperature data for each collection site were based on daily SST maps with a spatial resolution of 1/4°, obtained from the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oisst (Reynolds et al. 2007). These maps have been generated through the optimal interpolation of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data for the period 1981-2019. Underwater temperature loggers (ONSET Hobo pro v2 Data logger) were deployed at each site and recorded hourly temperatures throughout one year. In order to obtain an extended time series of temperature at each collection site, a calibration procedure was performed comparing logger data with sea surface temperature from the nearest point on SST maps. In particular, SST data were linearly fitted to logger data for the common period. Then, the calibration coefficients were applied to the whole SST time series to obtain corrected-SST data and reconstruct daily habitat temperatures from 1981-2019. [Field collections] Thermal tolerance experiments were conducted on two seagrass species (P. oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa) and two brown seaweed species (Cystoseira compressa and P. pavonica) from four locations spanning 8 degrees in latitude and 30 degrees in longitude across the Mediterranean (Fig. 1, Table S1). These four species were chosen as they are dominant foundation species and cosmopolitan across the Mediterranean Sea. Thermal performance experiments from Catalonia and Mallorca were conducted simultaneously in June 2016 for seaweeds (P. pavonica and C. compressa) and in August 2016 for seagrasses (P. oceanica and C. nodosa). Experiments for all four species were conducted in July 2017 for Crete and in September 2017 for Cyprus. Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Award: 659246; Juan de la Cierva Formacion, Award: FJCI-2016-30728; Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Award: MedShift, CGL2015-71809-P; Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Award: SUMAECO, RTI2018-095441-B-C21