Global imprint of climate change on marine life

Abstract

Past meta-analyses of the response of marine organisms to climate change have examined a limited range of locations, taxonomic groups and/or biological responses. This has precluded a robust overview of the effect of climate change in the global ocean. Here, we synthesized all available studies of the consistency of marine ecological observations with expectations under climate change. This yielded a meta-database of 1,735 marine biological responses for which either regional or global climate change was considered as a driver. Included were instances of marine taxa responding as expected, in a manner inconsistent with expectations, and taxa demonstrating no response. From this database, 81-83% of all observations for distribution, phenology, community composition, abundance, demography and calcification across taxa and ocean basins were consistent with the expected impacts of climate change. Of the species responding to climate change, rates of distribution shifts were, on average, consistent with those required to track ocean surface temperature changes. Conversely, we did not find a relationship between regional shifts in spring phenology and the seasonality of temperature. Rates of observed shifts in species\u27 distributions and phenology are comparable to, or greater, than those for terrestrial systems

Climate Change: Warming Impacts on Marine Biodiversity

“…Also in marine organisms, substantial shifts in spatial distribution ranges have been observed in organism groups from passively transported plankton to mobile top-predators (Beaugrand et al 2002;Atkinson et al 2008, Beaugrand et al 2009Montes-Hugo et al 2009, Block et al 2011Hazen et al 2013). In an unprecedented meta-analysis across locations and marine organism groups, Poloczanska et al (2013) (Parmesan and Yohe 2003;Chen et al 2011). Second, there is a huge discrepancy between the shifts of leading and trailing edges of the ranges, which partly can be explained by different warming scenarios in the different data sets used for these edge estimates (Poloczanska et al 2013).…”

“…Poloczanska et al (2013) summarized 50 data sets on marine phenology shifts in spring and in summer, and found on average an earlier onset of phenological aspects by 4.4 [± 0.7] days decennium −1 . As a result of differences in thermal physiology (e.g.…”

“…In an unprecedented meta-analysis across locations and marine organism groups, Poloczanska et al (2013) (Parmesan and Yohe 2003;Chen et al 2011). Second, there is a huge discrepancy between the shifts of leading and trailing edges of the ranges, which partly can be explained by different warming scenarios in the different data sets used for these edge estimates (Poloczanska et al 2013). However, differences in the lower and upper margin of climate-induced range shifts are also congruent with observations of a time-lag between immigration and extinction at the regional scale.…”

“…The majority of spring and summer events, such as spring phytoplankton bloom, have advanced in response to climate change (Thackeray et al 2010;Poloczanska et al 2013). Poloczanska et al (2013) summarized 50 data sets on marine phenology shifts in spring and in summer, and found on average an earlier onset of phenological aspects by 4.4 [± 0.7] days decennium −1 .…”

Detection and Attribution of Observed Impacts

“…et al, 2011;Poloczanska et al, 2013;Rosenzweig and Neofotis, 2013). Confidence in the detection of general patterns of change in these indices can increase with the number of species/ecosystems observed, the number of independent studies, the geographical distribution of these observations, the temporal depth and resolution of the data, and the representativeness of species/ecosystems and locations studied.…”