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Climate-driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem.

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Open access
Authors
Wernberg, T.
Bennett, Scott
Babcock, R.
de Bettignies, T.
Cure, K.
Depczynski, M.
Dufois, F.
Fromont, J.
Fulton, C.
Hovey, R.
Harvey, Euan
Holmes, T.
Kendrick, G.
Radford, B.
Santana Garcon, Julia
Saunders, Ben
Smale, D.
Thomsen, M.
Tuckett, C.
Tuya, F.
Vanderklift, M.
Wilson, S.
Date
2016
Type
Journal Article

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Wernberg, T. and Bennett, S. and Babcock, R. and de Bettignies, T. and Cure, K. and Depczynski, M. and Dufois, F. et al. 2016. Climate-driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem. Science. 353 (6295): pp. 169-172.
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Science
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Department of Environment and Agriculture
Remarks

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science 353 (2016), http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8745

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Abstract

Ecosystem reconfigurations arising from climate-driven changes in species distributions are expected to have profound ecological, social, and economic implications. Here we reveal a rapid climate-driven regime shift of Australian temperate reef communities, which lost their defining kelp forests and became dominated by persistent seaweed turfs. After decades of ocean warming, extreme marine heat waves forced a 100-kilometer range contraction of extensive kelp forests and saw temperate species replaced by seaweeds, invertebrates, corals, and fishes characteristic of subtropical and tropical waters. This community-wide tropicalization fundamentally altered key ecological processes, suppressing the recovery of kelp forests.