Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

An extreme climatic event alters marine ecosystem structure in a global biodiversity hotspot

Nature Climate Change volume 3, pages 78–82 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Extreme climatic events, such as heat waves, are predicted to increase in frequency and magnitude as a consequence of global warming but their ecological effects are poorly understood, particularly in marine ecosystems1,2,3. In early 2011, the marine ecosystems along the west coast of Australia—a global hotspot of biodiversity and endemism4,5—experienced the highest-magnitude warming event on record. Sea temperatures soared to unprecedented levels and warming anomalies of 2–4 °C persisted for more than ten weeks along >2,000 km of coastline. We show that biodiversity patterns of temperate seaweeds, sessile invertebrates and demersal fish were significantly different after the warming event, which led to a reduction in the abundance of habitat-forming seaweeds and a subsequent shift in community structure towards a depauperate state and a tropicalization of fish communities. We conclude that extreme climatic events are key drivers of biodiversity patterns and that the frequency and intensity of such episodes have major implications for predictive models of species distribution and ecosystem structure, which are largely based on gradual warming trends.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The 2011 heat wave in the southeast Indian Ocean.
Figure 2: The ecological structure of marine communities before and after the heat wave of 2011.
Figure 3: The response of macroalgae and fish to the marine heat wave of 2011.
Figure 4: Changes in seaweed canopy cover and tropicalization index for fish communities following the marine heat wave of 2011.

References

  1. Munday, P. L., Jones, G. P., Pratchett, M. S. & Williams, A. J. Climate change and the future for coral reef fishes. Fish Fisheries 9, 261–285 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hegerl, G. C., Hanlon, H. & Beierkuhnlein, C. Climate science: Elusive extremes. Nature Geosci. 4, 142–143 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jentsch, A., Kreyling, J. & Beierkuhnlein, C. A new generation of climate-change experiments: Events, not trends. Front. Ecol. Environ. 5, 365–374 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tittensor, D. P. et al. Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa. Nature 466, 1098–1101 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kerswell, A. P. Biodiversity patterns of benthic marine algae. Ecology 87, 2479–2488 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rosenzweig, C. et al. Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change. Nature 453, 353–357 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Cheung, W. W. L. et al. Climate-change induced tropicalisation of marine communities in Western Australia. Mar. Freshwat. Res. 63, 415–427 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hawkins, S. et al. Consequences of climate-driven biodiversity changes for ecosystem functioning of North European rocky shores. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 396, 245–259 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kerr, R. A. Humans are driving extreme weather; time to prepare. Science 334, 1040 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lough, J. M. 1997-98: Unprecedented thermal stress to coral reefs? Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 3901–3904 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Dayton, P. K. & Tegner, M. J. Catastrophic storms, El Niño, and patch stability in a southern California kelp community. Science 224, 283–285 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Garrabou, J. et al. Mass mortality in Northwestern Mediterranean rocky benthic communities: Effects of the 2003 heat wave. Glob. Change Biol. 15, 1090–1103 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lima, F. P. & Wethey, D. S. Three decades of high-resolution coastal sea surface temperatures reveal more than warming. Nature Commun. 3, 704 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Selig, E. R., Casey, K. S. & Bruno, J. F. New insights into global patterns of ocean temperature anomalies: Implications for coral reef health and management. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 19, 397–411 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Pearce, A. et al. The Marine Heat Waveoff Western Australia during the Summer of 2010/11. Fisheries Research Report No. 222 (Department of Fisheries, 2011).

  16. Levitus, S., Antonov, J. & Boyer, T. Warming of the world ocean 1955–2003. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L02604 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Smale, D. A., Kendrick, G. A. & Wernberg, T. Assemblage turnover and taxonomic sufficiency of subtidal macroalgae at multiple spatial scales. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 384, 76–86 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Langlois, T. J. et al. Consistent abundance distributions of marine fishes in an old, climatically buffered, infertile seascape. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2011.00734.x (2011).

  19. Wernberg, T., Thomsen, M. S., Tuya, F. & Kendrick, G. A. Biogenic habitat structure of seaweeds change along a latitudinal gradient in ocean temperature. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 400, 264–271 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Staehr, P. A. & Wernberg, T. Physiological responses of Ecklonia radiata (Laminariales) to a latitudinal gradient in ocean temperature. J. Phycol. 45, 91–99 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Dayton, P. K. Ecology of kelp communities. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 16, 215–245 (1985).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Steneck, R. S. et al. Kelp forest ecosystems: Biodiversity, stability, resilience and future. Environ. Conserv. 29, 436–459 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Gorman, D. & Connell, S. D. Recovering subtidal forests in human-dominated landscapes. J. Appl. Ecol. 46, 1258–1265 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Wernberg, T. & Connell, S. D. Physical disturbance and subtidal habitat structure on open rocky coasts: Effects of wave exposure, extent and intensity. J. Sea Res. 59, 237–248 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Caputi, N., Fletcher, W. J., Pearce, A. & Chubb, C. F. Effect of the Leeuwin Current on the recruitment of fish and invertebrates along the Western Australian coast. Mar. Freshwat. Res. 47, 147–155 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Figueira, W. F. & Booth, D. J. Increasing ocean temperatures allow tropical fishes to survive overwinter in temperate waters. Glob. Change Biol. 16, 506–516 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Dayton, P. K., Tegner, M. J., Parnell, P. E. & Edwards, P. B. Temporal and spatial patterns of disturbance and recovery in a kelp forest community. Ecol. Monogr. 62, 421–445 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Wernberg, T. et al. Decreasing resilience of kelp beds along a latitudinal temperature gradient: Potential implications for a warmer future. Ecol. Lett. 13, 685–694 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Tuya, F., Wernberg, T. & Thomsen, M. S. Testing the ‘abundant centre’ hypothesis on endemic reef fishes in south-western Australia. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 372, 225–230 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Anderson, M. J., Gorley, R. N. & Clarke, K. R. PERMANOVA+ for PRIMER: Guide to Software and Statistical Methods 2nd edn 214 (PRIMER-E Ltd, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Day, R. W. & Quinn, G. P. Comparisons of treatments after an analysis of variance in ecology. Ecol. Monogr. 59, 433–463 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Australian Research Council grants to T.W. Blended sea surface temperature anomalies were provided by the National Weather Service and the NOAA Operational Model Archive Distribution System. J. Zinke commented on the manuscript and provided assistance with the HadISST1 data.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Thomas Wernberg and Dan A. Smale: Shared lead authorship

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia

    Thomas Wernberg, Dan A. Smale, Mads S. Thomsen, Timothy J. Langlois, Thibaut de Bettignies & Scott Bennett

  2. School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia

    Thomas Wernberg, Dan A. Smale, Thibaut de Bettignies & Scott Bennett

  3. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Western Australia, 39 Fairway, Crawley 6009, Australia

    Thomas Wernberg

  4. Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Joondalup 6027, Australia

    Thomas Wernberg, Fernando Tuya, Mads S. Thomsen & Thibaut de Bettignies

  5. Department of Biology, BIOGES, Las Palmas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus Tafira, E-35017, Canary Islands, Spain

    Fernando Tuya

  6. Universities Space Research Association/Global Modelling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 21114, USA

    Cecile S. Rousseaux

Authors
  1. Thomas Wernberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dan A. Smale
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fernando Tuya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mads S. Thomsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Timothy J. Langlois
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Thibaut de Bettignies
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Scott Bennett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Cecile S. Rousseaux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

T.W. conceived the research programme and secured financial support. D.A.S. and T.W. contributed equally to the conceptualization and development of the paper. D.A.S. wrote most of the paper, with assistance from T.W., and carried out most analyses, with assistance from T.W. and T.J.L. Fieldwork was orchestrated by T.W. and conducted by T.W., F.T., T.d.B., M.S.T., S.B., T.J.L. and D.A.S. Analysis of temperature data was carried out by C.S.R. and T.W., with assistance from D.A.S. All authors discussed the results.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Thomas Wernberg or Dan A. Smale.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 1048 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wernberg, T., Smale, D., Tuya, F. et al. An extreme climatic event alters marine ecosystem structure in a global biodiversity hotspot. Nature Clim Change 3, 78–82 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1627

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1627

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing