An ode to zooplankton heatwave resilience
In the dried sediments of empty dryland lakes,
zooplankton egg banks lay waiting under the hot sun.
After months or years, lakes fill and dormancy breaks,
zooplankton hatch and emerge many, all, or some.
Under climate change their resilience may be tested,
dryland temperatures to increase more than the global mean.
Zooplankton survival could be impacted or arrested,
will they survive this ecological extreme?
To understand the impacts of heatwaves on hatching,
current conditions should be known and relative.
Are the temperatures of ground and air matching?
These were measured to make research representative.
Climate change projections were added to the new data,
creating heatwave treatments to mimic extremes.
Lake sediments were “cooked” for a starter,
then water added, zooplankton hatchlings counted once seen.
The zooplankton triumphed, their survival is protected,
hatching after 66°C heatwaves an amazing feat, and discovery.
Climate change impacts currently projected,
are within zooplankton mechanisms of resilience and recovery.