Responses of Marine Organisms to Climate Change across Oceans

Poloczanska, Elvira S.; Burrows, Michael T.; Brown, Christopher J.; Molinos, Jorge García; Halpern, Benjamin S.; Høegh-Guldberg, Ove; Kappel, Carrie V.; Moore, Pippa J.; Richardson, Anthony J.; Schoeman, David S.; Sydeman, William J.

doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00062

Cited by 745 publications

(576 citation statements)

References 198 publications

(270 reference statements)

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“…Some researchers question the capacity of corals to adapt to rapid climate change (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2006;Frieler et al, 2013), whereas other researchers suggest that adaptive radiations and directional selection of thermally tolerant genotypes are likely (Thompson, 1998;Hoffmann and Sgro, 2011;Guest et al, 2012;Poloczanska et al, 2016). The present study suggests an additional, more nuanced, effect of ocean warming-causing geographical shifts of reef corals toward more turbid environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Woesik

McCaffrey

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Over the last three decades reef corals have been subjected to an unprecedented frequency and intensity of thermal-stress events, which have led to extensive coral bleaching, disease, and mortality. Over the next century, the climate is predicted to drive sea-surface temperatures to even higher levels, consequently increasing the risk of mass bleaching and disease outbreaks. Yet, there is considerable temporal and spatial variation in coral bleaching and in disease prevalence. Using data collected from 2,398 sites along the Florida reef tract from 2005 to 2015, this study examined the temporal and spatial patterns of coral bleaching and disease in relation to coral-colony size, depth, temperature, and chlorophyll-a concentrations. The results show that coral bleaching was most prevalent during the warmest years in 2014 and 2015, and disease was also most prevalent in 2010, 2014, and 2015. Although the majority of the corals surveyed were found in habitats with low chlorophyll-a concentrations, and high irradiance, these same habitats showed the highest prevalence of coral bleaching and disease outbreaks during thermal-stress events. These results suggest that directional selection in a warming ocean may favor corals able to tolerate inshore, shaded environments with high turbidity and productivity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Woesik

McCaffrey

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…As outlined by Poloczanska et al (2013Poloczanska et al ( , 2014Poloczanska et al ( , 2016, marine species are already redistributing toward higher latitudes. This has the potential to reorganize ecosystems including commercial fish stocks, drive changes to the distribution, and abundance of predators and prey, as well as increasing the risks of invasive species taking hold in new locations and ecosystems.…”

Section: Living With Change: Implications For People and Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

et al. 2017

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Coral reefs are found in a wide range of environments, where they provide food and habitat to a large range of organisms as well as providing many other ecological goods and services. Warm-water coral reefs, for example, occupy shallow sunlit, warm, and alkaline waters in order to grow and calcify at the high rates necessary to build and maintain their calcium carbonate structures. At deeper locations (40-150 m), "mesophotic" (low light) coral reefs accumulate calcium carbonate at much lower rates (if at all in some cases) yet remain important as habitat for a wide range of organisms, including those important for fisheries. Finally, even deeper, down to 2,000 m or more, the so-called "cold-water" coral reefs are found in the dark depths. Despite their importance, coral reefs are facing significant challenges from human activities including pollution, over-harvesting, physical destruction, and climate change. In the latter case, even lower greenhouse gas emission scenarios (such as Representative Concentration Pathway RCP 4.5) are likely drive the elimination of most warm-water coral reefs by 2040-2050. Cold-water corals are also threatened by warming temperatures and ocean acidification although evidence of the direct effect of climate change is less clear. Evidence that coral reefs can adapt at rates which are sufficient for them to keep up with rapid ocean warming and acidification is minimal, especially given that corals are long-lived and hence have slow rates of evolution. Conclusions that coral reefs will migrate to higher latitudes as they warm are equally unfounded, with the observations of tropical species appearing at high latitudes "necessary but not sufficient" evidence that entire coral reef ecosystems are shifting. On the contrary, coral reefs are likely to degrade rapidly over the next 20 years, presenting fundamental challenges for the 500 million people who derive food, income, coastal protection, and a range of other services from coral reefs. Unless rapid advances to the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement occur over the next decade, hundreds of millions of people are likely to face increasing amounts of poverty and social disruption, and, in some cases, regional insecurity.

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“…When faced with warming ocean temperatures many marine species have been shown to exhibit poleward range shifts [1][2][3] . These range shifts are dependent on having available suitable habitat at higher (cooler) latitudes 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More losers than winners in a century of future Southern Ocean seafloor warming

2017

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The waters of the Southern Ocean are projected to warm over the coming century, with potential adverse consequences for native cold-adapted organisms. Warming waters have caused temperate marine species to shift their ranges poleward. The seafloor animals of the Southern Ocean shelf have long been isolated by the deep ocean surrounding Antarctica and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, with little scope for southward migration. How these largely endemic species will react to future projected warming is unknown. By considering 963 invertebrate species, we show that within the current century, warming temperatures alone are unlikely to result in wholesale extinction or invasion affecting Antarctic seafloor life. However, 79% of Antarctica's endemic species do face a significant reduction in suitable temperature habitat (an average 12% reduction). Our findings highlight the species and regions most likely to respond significantly (negatively and positively) to warming and have important implications for future management of the region.

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Responses of Marine Organisms to Climate Change across Oceans

Cited by 745 publications

References 198 publications

Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

More losers than winners in a century of future Southern Ocean seafloor warming

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