Climate change and marine benthos: a review of existing research and future directions in the North Atlantic

Abstract

There is growing evidence that climate change could affect marine benthic systems. This review provides information of climate change‐related impacts on the marine benthos in the North Atlantic. We cover a number of related research aspects, mainly in connection to two key issues. First, is the relationship between different physical aspects of climate change and the marine benthos. This section covers: (a) the responses to changes in seawater temperature (biogeographic shifts and phenology); (b) altered Hydrodynamics; (c) ocean acidification (OA); and (d) sea‐level rise‐coastal squeeze. The second major issue addressed is the possible integrated impact of climate change on the benthos. This work is based on relationships between proxies for climate variability, notably the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, and the long‐term marine benthos. The final section of our review provides a series of conclusions and future directions to support climate change research on marine benthic systems. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:203–223. doi: 10.1002/wcc.330 This article is categorized under: Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Modeling Species and Community Interactions

Combined Effects of Environmental Drivers on Marine Trophic Groups – A Systematic Model Comparison

“…Nevertheless, some of the dominant species of the deep zone included in our models (M. affinis, Mysis relicta, and S. entomon) are glacial relicts that are believed to be coldadapted (Segerstråle, 1962). The reason for a lack of a larger temperature response from these groups may partly be that some important temperature effects are not captured by either model, e.g., on species distributions, phenology or body sizes (Sommer et al, 2012;Poloczanska et al, 2013;Birchenough et al, 2015).…”

Food-Web Structure in Four Locations Along the European Shelf Indicates Spatial Differences in Ecosystem Functioning

“…Despite these differences, the marine ecosystems of the northern European continental shelf are characterized by some key overarching features: (1) Pronounced seasonality in the ecosystems with a strong influence of the North Atlantic Current (Neumann and Kröncke, 2011;Silberberger et al, 2016), (2) Calanus as the key zooplankton taxon and an important link between primary production and higher trophic levels (Williams et al, 1994;Espinasse et al, 2016), and (3) large stocks of commercially important fish species are sustained by these ecosystems (Føyn et al, 2002;Ehrich et al, 2007). In recent years, however, ongoing climate change has impacted all compartments of the marine ecosystem, leading to regime shifts of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities (Beaugrand and Ibanez, 2004;Richardson and Schoeman, 2004;McQuatters-Gollop et al, 2007), distributional shifts of benthos Birchenough et al, 2015), and deepening of fish assemblages (Dulvy et al, 2008). Cod has disappeared almost completely from the southern North Sea due to overfishing and climate change (Daan et al, 2005;Beaugrand and Kirby, 2010), and the region has changed into flatfish dominated communities, including abundant commercial species (e.g., Pleuronectes platessa) and particularly high abundances of small, non-commercial, mesopredatory species (e.g., Buglossidium luteum) (Ehrich et al, 2007;van Hal et al, 2010;Schückel et al, 2012).…”

Big in the benthos: Future change of seafloor community biomass in a global, body size‐resolved model

“…They are also often highly biodiverse, and in the deep‐sea, may be relatively pristine compared to other marine habitats more directly impacted by human activities (Jackson et al., ; Lotze et al., ; Ramirez‐Llodra et al., ). As such, they may be indicators of anthropogenic change in deep‐sea habitats (Rees, Boyd, Schratzberger, & Murray, ), whether that be by global‐scale climate change or ocean acidification (Birchenough et al., ; Mora et al., ; Sweetman et al., ; Yasuhara, Cronin, deMenocal, Okahashi, & Linsley, ), or by local seafloor mineral extraction (Halfar & Fujita, ).…”

“…As such, they may be indicators of anthropogenic change in deep-sea habitats (Rees, Boyd, Schratzberger, & Murray, 2006), whether that be by global-scale climate change or ocean acidification (Birchenough et al, 2015;Mora et al, 2013;Sweetman et al, 2017;Yasuhara, Cronin, deMenocal, Okahashi, & Linsley, 2008), or by local seafloor mineral extraction (Halfar & Fujita, 2007).…”