Marine heat waves threaten kelp forests

Arafeh‐Dalmau, Nur; Schoeman, David S.; Montáño-Moctezuma, Gabriela; Micheli, Fiorenza; Rogers‐Bennett, Laura; Olguín-Jacobson, Carolina; Possingham, Hugh P.

doi:10.1126/science.aba5244

Cited by 62 publications

(50 citation statements)

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“…Our results, like others around the world, indicate that temperate kelp forest ecosystems appear especially vulnerable to marine heatwaves because of the pronounced effects on kelps as foundation species (sensu Dayton, 1972), which serve as major sources of primary production and physical habitat structure (e.g., Arafeh-Dalmau et al, 2020;Filbee-Dexter, Feehan, & Scheibling, 2016;Filbee-Dexter, Wernberg, Fredriksen, Norderhaug, & Pedersen, 2018;Martínez et al, 2018;Rogers-Bennett & Catton, 2019;Smale & Wernberg, 2013;Tanaka et al, 2012;Thomsen et al, 2019;Vergés et al, 2016;Wernberg et al, 2010Wernberg et al, , 2011Wernberg et al, , 2012Wernberg et al, , 2016. We found that region-wide declines in abundance of canopy-forming kelps were strongly associated with the recent marine heatwave.…”

Section: Geographic Range and Ecosystem Structure Shiftssupporting

confidence: 77%

Geographic variation in responses of kelp forest communities of the California Current to recent climatic changes

Beas-Luna

Micheli

Woodson

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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The changing global climate is having profound effects on coastal marine ecosystems around the world. Structure, functioning, and resilience, however, can vary geographically, depending on species composition, local oceanographic forcing, and other pressures from human activities and use. Understanding ecological responses to environmental change and predicting changes in the structure and functioning of whole ecosystems require large-scale, long-term studies, yet most studies trade spatial extent for temporal duration. We address this shortfall by integrating multiple long-term kelp forest monitoring datasets to evaluate biogeographic patterns and rates of change of key functional groups (FG) along the west coast of North America. Analysis of data from 469 sites spanning Alaska, USA, to Baja California, Mexico, and 373 species (assigned to 18 FG) reveals regional variation in responses to both long-term (2006-2016) change and a recent marine heatwave (2014-2016) associated with two atmospheric and oceanographic anomalies, the "Blob" and extreme El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Canopy-forming kelps appeared most

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Section: Geographic Range and Ecosystem Structure Shiftssupporting

confidence: 77%

Geographic variation in responses of kelp forest communities of the California Current to recent climatic changes

Beas-Luna

Micheli

Woodson

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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“…The trend of global warming is one of the most important climate change changes of recent decades, which researchers provided on a regional and planetary scale [1][2][3][4] . Climate change and global warming, and its consequences for life and the process of development in human societies, have become the greatest global issue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the effect of climate change on heat waves

Javadinejad

Dara

Jafary

2020

Resour Environ Inf Eng

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The purpose of this research is to identify the heat waves of the South Sea of Iran and compare the conditions in the present and future. To reach this goal, the average daily temperature of 35 years has been used. Also, in order to predict future heat waves, the maximum temperature data of four models of the CMIP5 model series, according to the RCP 8.5 scenario, has been used for the period 2040-2074. In order to reverse the output of the climatic models, artificial neural networks were used to identify the thermal waves, and the Fumiaki index was used to determine the thermal waves. Using the programming in MATLAB software, the days when their temperature exceeded 2 standard deviations as a thermal wave were identified. The results of the research show that the short-term heat waves are more likely to occur. Heat waves in the base period have a significant but poorly developed trend, so that the frequency has increased in recent years. In the period from 2040 to 2074, the frequency of thermal waves has a significant decreasing trend, but usually with low coefficients. However, for some stations from 2040 to 2074, the frequency of predicted heat waves increased.

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“…Regional studies have shown the negative effect of warming on brown macroalgae (Sansón et al 2013). In addition to rising temperatures, the role of extreme hightemperature events (marine heatwaves) also has a negative impact on fucoid populations (Vergés et al 2014;Arafeh-Dalmau et al 2020). As the magnitude and frequency of extreme events are expected to increase under climate change (Gaines and Denny 1993;Coumou and Rahmstorf 2012;Frölicher and Laufkötter 2018), this should be taken into consideration in future experiments testing their effects on canopy-forming algae in Madeira.…”

Section: Possible Causes and Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The collapse of marine forests: drastic reduction in populations of the family Sargassaceae in Madeira Island (NE Atlantic)

et al. 2021

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Species of the genera Cystoseira, Ericaria, Gongolaria, and Sargassum (family Sargassaceae) are key components of the Mediterranean-Atlantic marine forests, essential for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Populations of these foundational species are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts, likely to be intensified under future scenarios of climate change. The decline and even disappearance of these species have been reported in different areas of the world. At Madeira Island (NE Atlantic), populations of Gongolaria abies-marina, Ericaria selaginoides, Sargassum vulgare, and Sargassum filipendula, the most ecologically relevant species in Macaronesian marine forests, have been suffering a drastic decline during the last decades, especially on the southern coast of the island, where anthropogenic pressure is higher than on the north coast. The lack of sufficient temporal coverage on qualitative and quantitative studies of Sargassaceae communities in Madeira poses a challenge to establish a specific period for this decline. Consulting qualitative studies and historical records, we have set for the first time a timeline that shows an evident decrease in Sargassaceae populations in the last 20 years on Madeira Island. Following this timeline, we pinpoint the start of this decline in the first decade of the 2000s. This can be particularly confirmed for places like Funchal and Reis Magos, with significantly higher historical records. Currently, most benthic communities on shallow subtidal rocky reefs along the south coast are dominated by sea urchins and crustose coralline algae, the so-called sea urchin barrens. However, in some cases, they are entirely covered by a layer of sediment. We discuss the possible factors contributing to these drastic changes, bringing Madeira’s marine forests to a dramatic decline. As many animal species rely on marine forests, the decline of Sargassaceae populations represents an invaluable ecological loss for the coastal ecosystem of the island.

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Marine heat waves threaten kelp forests

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Cited by 62 publications

References 10 publications

Geographic variation in responses of kelp forest communities of the California Current to recent climatic changes

Geographic variation in responses of kelp forest communities of the California Current to recent climatic changes

Investigation of the effect of climate change on heat waves

The collapse of marine forests: drastic reduction in populations of the family Sargassaceae in Madeira Island (NE Atlantic)

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