Seasonal trends in marine heatwaves highlight vulnerable coastal ecoregions and historic change points in New Zealand

Long‐term community shifts driven by local extinction of an iconic foundation species following an extreme marine heatwave

“…For example, over the last 40 years, most temperate coastal ecosystems, which often are dominated by large brown seaweeds, have experienced strong increases in MHWs (Thoral et al, 2022 ). More specifically, similar trends have been observed in coastal New Zealand (Montie et al, 2023 ), a bioregion characterized by a long temperate coastline, high biodiversity, and unique marine communities with many endemic species (Costello et al, 2010 ). It is therefore of principal importance to document how coastal ecosystems may change in the future following the total loss of competitively dominant foundation species.…”