Mitigation of intertidal temperature extremes by algal canopies

Intertidal macroalgal canopies buffer temperature extremes, with lower tidal position, reduced solar exposure, and algal cover together yielding about 4°C average cooling across six shores.

• Why it matters: Quantifying how much biogenic structure moderates thermal stress is needed to predict persistence under warming, yet buffering magnitude and its drivers across scales remain unclear.
• What they did: Using high-frequency, high-spatial-resolution in situ temperature logging, the study compared microclimates under algal cover versus cleared bare rock across two tidal levels, two exposures, two seasons, and six shores.
• The result: Thermal buffering was highly heterogeneous, varying by species identity, cover, tidal level, and solar exposure, and even small algal specimens produced measurable cooling.

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