Biodiversity response to natural gradients of multiple stressors on continental margins.

ABSTRACT: Sharp increases in atmospheric CO2 are resulting in ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation that threaten marine organisms on continental margins and their ecological functions and resulting ecosystem services. The relative influence of these stressors on biodiversity remains unclear, as well as the threshold levels for change and when secondary stressors become important. One strategy to interpret adaptation potential and predict future faunal change is to examine ecological shifts along natural gradients in the modern ocean. Here, we assess the explanatory power of temperature, oxygen and the carbonate system for macrofaunal diversity and evenness along continental upwelling margins using variance partitioning techniques. Oxygen levels have the strongest explanatory capacity for v

SUBMITTER: Sperling EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4855395 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature