Dataset Information

Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events.

ABSTRACT: Prolonged high-temperature extreme events in the ocean, marine heatwaves, can have severe and long-lasting impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries and associated services. This study applies a marine heatwave framework to analyse a global sea surface temperature product and identify the most extreme events, based on their intensity, duration and spatial extent. Many of these events have yet to be described in terms of their physical attributes, generation mechanisms, or ecological impacts. Our synthesis identifies commonalities between marine heatwave characteristics and seasonality, links to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, triggering processes and impacts on ocean productivity. The most intense events preferentially occur in summer, when climatological oceanic mixed layers are shallow and winds are weak, but at a time preceding climatological maximum sea surface temperatures. Most subtropical extreme marine heatwaves were triggered by persistent atmospheric high-pressure systems and anomalously weak wind speeds, associated with increased insolation, and reduced ocean heat losses. Furthermore, the most extreme events tended to coincide with reduced chlorophyll-a concentration at low and mid-latitudes. Understanding the importance of the oceanic background state, local and remote drivers and the ocean productivity response from past events are critical steps toward improving predictions of future marine heatwaves and their impacts.

SUBMITTER: Sen Gupta A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7653907 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events.

Sen Gupta Alex A Thomsen Mads M Benthuysen Jessica A JA Hobday Alistair J AJ Oliver Eric E Alexander Lisa V LV Burrows Michael T MT Donat Markus G MG Feng Ming M Holbrook Neil J NJ Perkins-Kirkpatrick Sarah S Moore Pippa J PJ Rodrigues Regina R RR Scannell Hillary A HA Taschetto Andréa S AS Ummenhofer Caroline C CC Wernberg Thomas T Smale Dan A DA

Scientific reports 20201109 1

Prolonged high-temperature extreme events in the ocean, marine heatwaves, can have severe and long-lasting impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries and associated services. This study applies a marine heatwave framework to analyse a global sea surface temperature product and identify the most extreme events, based on their intensity, duration and spatial extent. Many of these events have yet to be described in terms of their physical attributes, generation mechanisms, or ecological impacts. Our s ...[more]

PMID: 33168858

Similar Datasets

Project description:Marine ecosystems and their living marine resources (LMRs) continue to respond to the effects of global change, with environmental factors impacting marine fisheries biomass, distribution, harvest, and associated economic performance. Extreme events such as high-category hurricanes, harmful algal blooms, marine heatwaves, and large-scale hypoxia affect major regions and subregions of United States waters, with their frequency expected to increase over the next decades. The impacts of extreme events on fisheries biomass, harvest, and economic performance have not been examined as closely as a system (i.e., cumulatively), or in terms of their differential effects on particular functional groups of a given system. Among several U.S. subregions, we examined responses of fisheries biomass, landings, and revenue for particular functional groups to large-scale environmental perturbations (i.e., marine heatwaves, Hurricane Katrina, Deepwater Horizon oil spill). Distinct negative short-term consequences to annual fisheries biomass, landings, and revenue were observed in all regions, including at the system-level scale for several ecosystems which have higher proportions of pelagic species composition and variable shellfish-based revenue. In addition, shifts in species composition often were associated with environmental perturbations. Recovery to pre-perturbation levels (both in the immediate years following the event and over the post-event period of study) and resilience at the system level was observed in several cases, although post-event declines in biomass and landings occurred in the California ecosystem. Certain extreme events are expected to become more common in marine environments, with resulting perturbations throughout multiple components of U.S. socioecological systems. The recognition and understanding of the consequences of extreme events throughout marine ecosystems is necessary for effective, holistic, and sustainable management practices.

Project description:Extreme climatic events (ECEs), such as marine heatwaves (MHWs), are a major threat to biodiversity. Understanding the variability in ecological responses to recurrent ECEs within species and underlying drivers arise as a key issue owing to their implications for conservation and population recovery. Yet, our knowledge on such ecological responses is limited since it has been frequently gathered following "single-event approaches" focused on one particular event. These approaches provide snapshots of ecological responses but fall short of capturing heterogeneity patterns that may occur among recurrent ECEs, questioning current predictions regarding biodiversity trends. Here, we adopt a "multiple events" perspective to characterize the effects of recurrent ECEs on the ecological responses in Paramuricea clavata, a Mediterranean temperate coral threatened by MHWs. Through a common-garden experiment repeated three consecutive years with the same individuals from three populations, we assessed the respective roles of environmental (year effect), genetic (population effect), and phenotypic (population-by-environment interactions effect) components in the ecological response to recurrent heat stress. The environmental component (year) was the main driver underlying the responses of P. clavata colonies across experiments. To build on this result, we showed that: (i) the ecological responses were not related to population (genetic isolation) and individual (multilocus heterozygosity) genetic make-up, (ii) while all the individuals were characterized by a high environmental sensitivity (genotype-by-environment interactions) likely driven by in situ summer thermal regime. We confront our experimental results to in situ monitoring of the same individuals conducted in 2022 following two MHWs (2018, 2022). This confirms that the targeted populations harbor limited adaptive and plastic capacities to on-going recurrent ECEs and that P. clavata might face unavoidable population collapses in shallow Mediterranean waters. Overall, we underscore the need to consider the recurrence of ECEs to assess threats to biodiversity and to forecast its evolution.

Project description:Seagrass ecosystems, vital as primary producer habitats for maintaining high biodiversity and delivering numerous ecosystem services, face increasing threats from climate change, particularly marine heatwaves. This study introduces a pioneering methodology that integrates Dynamic Bayesian Networks of ecosystem resilience with climate projections, aiming to enhance our understanding of seagrass responses to extreme climate events. We developed cutting-edge metrics for measuring shoot density and biomass in terms of population and site extinction, presented as annual ratios relative to their respective baselines. These metrics include associated uncertainties and projected recovery times. This innovative approach was applied in a case study focusing on Zostera muelleri in Gladstone Harbour, Australia. Utilising five downscaled climate models with a 10 km resolution, our study encompasses a range of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and emissions trajectories, offering a comprehensive perspective on potential future scenarios. Our findings reveal significant variations in seagrass resilience and recovery times across different climate scenarios, accompanied by varying degrees of uncertainty. For instance, under the optimistic SSP1-1.9 scenario, seagrass demonstrated a capacity for recovery heat stress, with shoot density ratios improving from 0.2 (90% Prediction Interval 0.219, 0.221) in 2041 to 0.5 (90% PI 0.198, 1.076) by 2044. However, this scenario also highlighted potential site extinction risks, with recovery gaps spanning 12 to 18 years. In contrast, the more pessimistic SSP5-8.5 scenario revealed a significant decline in seagrass health, with shoot density ratios decreasing from 0.42 (90% PI 0.226, 0.455) in 2041 to just 0.2 (90% PI 0.211, 0.221) in 2048, and no recovery observed after 2038. This study, through its novel integration of climate models, Dynamic Bayesian Networks, and Monte Carlo methods, offers a groundbreaking approach to ecological forecasting, significantly enhancing seagrass resilience assessment and supporting climate adaptation strategies under changing climatic conditions. This methodology holds great potential for application across various sites and future climate scenarios, offering a versatile tool for integrating Dynamic Bayesian Networks ecosystem models.

Dataset Information

Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events.

Publications

Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets