Climate driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem

Wernberg, T, Bennett, S, Babcock, RC, de Bettignies, T, Cure, K, Depczynski, M, Dufois, F, Fromont, J, Fulton, CJ, Hovey, RK, Harvey, ES, Holmes, TH, Kendrick, GA, Radford, B, Santana-Garcon, J, Saunders, BJ, Smale, DA, Thomsen, MS, Tuckett, CA, Tuya, F, Vanderklift, MA and Wilson, SK 2016 Climate driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem. Science, 353 (6295). 169-172. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8745

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Text (This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science on 8 July 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aad8745) Wernberg et al kelp loss_accepted_manuscript.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Ecosystem reconfigurations arising from climate-driven changes in species distributions are expected to have profound ecological, social, and economic implications. Here we reveal a rapid climate-driven regime shift of Australian temperate reef communities, which lost their defining kelp forests and became dominated by persistent seaweed turfs. After decades of ocean warming, extreme marine heat waves forced a 100-kilometer range contraction of extensive kelp forests and saw temperate species replaced by seaweeds, invertebrates, corals, and fishes characteristic of subtropical and tropical waters. This community-wide tropicalization fundamentally altered key ecological processes, suppressing the recovery of kelp forests.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Divisions:	Marine Biological Association of the UK > Ocean Biology
Depositing User:	Dr Dan Smale
Date made live:	17 Aug 2016 10:35
Last Modified:	09 Feb 2024 16:51
URI:	https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/7116

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