bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.28.402156; this version posted February 20, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-ND 4.0 International license. Metabolic depression in sea urchin barrens associated with food deprivation NATHAN B. SPINDEL1, *, LYNN C. LEE2, AND DANIEL K. OKAMOTO1 1Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, 319 Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295, USA 2Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, and Haida Heritage Site, 60 Second Beach Road, Skidegate, British Columbia, Canada *Corresponding author-:
[email protected] 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.28.402156; this version posted February 20, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Key words: bioenergetics, metabolism, metabolic scaling, metabolic ecology, food availability, 2 gonad index, sea urchins, barrens. 3 The proliferation of sea urchins can decimate macroalgal forests in coastal ecosystems, 4 leading to persistent barren seascapes. While kelp forests are among the most productive 5 ecosystems on the planet, productivity in these urchin barrens is dramatically reduced (Filbee- 6 Dexter and Scheibling 2014). Moreover, urchins inhabiting these food-depauperate barrens face 7 starvation and many survive in these barrens for years or decades.