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.

Recent warming leads to a rapid borealization of fish communities in the Arctic

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 673–677 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Arctic marine ecosystems are warming twice as fast as the global average1. As a consequence of warming, many incoming species experience increasing abundances and expanding distribution ranges in the Arctic2. The Arctic is expected to have the largest species turnover with regard to invading and locally extinct species, with a modelled invasion intensity of five times the global average3. Studies in this region might therefore give valuable insights into community-wide shifts of species driven by climate warming. We found that the recent warming in the Barents Sea4 has led to a change in spatial distribution of fish communities, with boreal communities expanding northwards at a pace reflecting the local climate velocities5. Increased abundance and distribution areas of large, migratory fish predators explain the observed community-wide distributional shifts. These shifts change the ecological interactions experienced by Arctic fish species. The Arctic shelf fish community retracted northwards to deeper areas bordering the deep polar basin. Depth might limit further retraction of some of the fish species in the Arctic shelf community. We conclude that climate warming is inducing structural change over large spatial scales at high latitudes, leading to a borealization of fish communities in the Arctic.

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

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

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

Figure 1: Environmental conditions and fish communities in the Barents Sea.
Figure 2: Distributional changes of fish communities from 2004 to 2012.
Figure 3: Changes in fish abundance in the northern Barents Sea (calculated area shown on map).

References

  1. Hoegh-Guldberg, O. & Bruno, J. F. The impact of climate change on the world’s marine ecosystems. Science 328, 1523–1528 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Doney, S. C. et al. Climate change impacts on marine ecosystems. Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 4, 11–37 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Cheung, W. W. L. et al. Projecting global marine biodiversity impacts under climate change scenarios. Fish Fish. 10, 235–251 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Smedsrud, L. H. et al. The role of the Barents Sea in the Arctic climate system. Rev. Geophys. 51, 415–449 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Pinsky, M. L., Worm, B., Fogarty, M. J., Sarmiento, J. L. & Levin, S. A. Marine taxa track local climate velocities. Science 341, 1239–1242 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Sunday, J. M., Bates, A. E. & Dulvyy, N. K. Thermal tolerance and global redistribution of animals. Nature Clim. Change 2, 686–690 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Poloczanska, E. S. et al. Global imprint of climate change on marine life. Nature Clim. Change 3, 919–925 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Richardson, A. J. et al. Climate change and marine life. Biol. Lett. 8, 907–909 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cheung, W. W. L., Watson, R. & Pauly, D. Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch. Nature 497, 365–367 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Simpson, S. D. et al. Continental shelf-wide response of a fish assemblage to rapid warming of the sea. Curr. Biol. 21, 1565–1570 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Perry, A. L., Low, P. J., Ellis, J. R. & Reynolds, J. D. Climate change and distribution shifts in marine fishes. Science 308, 1912–1915 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dulvy, N. K. et al. Climate change and deepening of the North Sea fish assemblage: A biotic indicator of warming seas. J. Appl. Ecol. 45, 1029–1039 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hollowed, A. B., Planque, B. & Loeng, H. Potential movement of fish and shellfish stocks from the sub-Arctic to the Arctic Ocean. Fish. Oceanogr. 22, 355–370 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Comiso, J. C. Large decadal decline of the Arctic multiyear ice cover. J. Clim. 25, 1176–1193 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Johannesen, E., Høines, Å. S., Dolgov, A. V. & Fossheim, M. Demersal fish assemblages and spatial diversity patterns in the Arctic–Atlantic transition zone in the Barents Sea. PLoS ONE 7, e34924 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Spielhagen, R. F. et al. Enhanced modern heat transfer to the Arctic by warm Atlantic water. Science 331, 450–453 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wassmann, P. et al. Food webs and carbon flux in the Barents Sea. Prog. Oceanogr. 71, 232–287 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kjesbu, O. S. et al. Synergies between climate and management for Atlantic cod fisheries at high latitudes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 3478–3483 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Renaud, P. E. et al. Is the poleward expansion by Atlantic cod and haddock threatening native polar cod, Boreogadus saida? Polar Biol. 35, 401–412 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Johansen, G. O., Johannesen, E., Michalsen, K., Aglen, A. & Fotland, Å. Seasonal variation in geographic distribution of North East Arctic (NEA) cod–survey coverage in a warmer Barents Sea. Mar. Biol. Res. 9, 908–919 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Landa, C. S., Ottersen, G., Sundby, S., Dingsør, G. E. & Stiansen, J. E. Recruitment, distribution boundary and habitat temperature of an arcto-boreal gadoid in a climatically changing environment: A case study on Northeast Arctic haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus). Fish. Oceanogr. 23, 506–520 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Dalpadado, P. et al. Productivity in the Barents Sea–Response to recent climate variability. PLoS ONE 9, e95273 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Genner, M. J. et al. Regional climatic warming drives long-term community changes of British marine fish. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 271, 655–661 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Dalpadado, P. et al. Climate effects on Barents Sea ecosystem dynamics. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 69, 1303–1316 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Falk-Petersen, S., Mayzaud, P., Kattner, G. & Sargent, J. R. Lipids and life strategy of Arctic Calanus. Mar. Biol. Res. 5, 18–39 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Cochrane, S. K. J. et al. Benthic macrofauna and productivity regimes in the Barents Sea—Ecological implications in a changing Arctic. J. Sea Res. 61, 222–233 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Planque, B. et al. Who eats whom in the Barents Sea: A food web topology from plankton to whales. Ecol. Arch. 95, E095–E124 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Wiedmann, M. A., Primicerio, R., Dolgov, A., Ottesen, C. A. M. & Aschan, M. Life history variation in Barents Sea fish: Implications for sensitivity to fishing in a changing environment. Ecol. Evol. 4, 3596–3611 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Hop, H. & Gjøsæter, H. Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) and capelin (Mallotus villosus) as key species in marine food webs of the Arctic and the Barents Sea. Mar. Biol. Res. 9, 878–894 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Wiedmann, M. A. et al. Functional diversity of the Barents Sea fish community. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 495, 205–218 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Cavalieri, D. J., Parkinson, C. L., Gloersen, P. & Zwally, H. J. Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I Passive Microwave Data. Digital Media (National Snow and Ice Data Center, 1996); http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0051.html

    Google Scholar 

  32. Boitsov, V. D., Karsakov, A. L. & Trofimov, A. G. Atlantic water temperature and climate in the Barents Sea, 2000–2009. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 69, 833–840 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Cressie, N. A. C. Statistics for Spatial Data (Wiley, 1993).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Greenacre, M. & Primicerio, R. Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data (Fundación BBVA, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Legendre, P. & Legendre, L. F. J. Numerical Ecology 3rd edn (Elsevier, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Elith, J. & Leathwick, J. R. Species distribution models. Ecological explanation and prediction across space and time. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 40, 677–697 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Dormann, J. C. et al. Collinearity: A review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study to evaluate their performance. Ecography 36, 27–46 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Zuur, A. F., Ieno, E. N., Walker, N. J., Saveliev, A. A. & Smith, S. M. Mixed Effects Models and Extensions in Ecology with R (Springer, 2009).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This is a contribution to the BarEcoRe (Barents Sea ecosystem resilience under global environmental change) project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (200793/S30). We would like to thank everyone involved in the joint ecosystem surveys at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway, and Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO), Russia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Research, 9294 Tromsø, Norway

    Maria Fossheim, Edda Johannesen & Randi B. Ingvaldsen

  2. The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway

    Raul Primicerio & Michaela M. Aschan

  3. Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, 183038 Murmansk, Russia

    Andrey V. Dolgov

Authors
  1. Maria Fossheim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Raul Primicerio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Edda Johannesen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Randi B. Ingvaldsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michaela M. Aschan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Andrey V. Dolgov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.F., R.P. and E.J. contributed to the formulation of hypotheses and approach. M.F., R.P. and R.B.I. performed the data analysis. All authors participated in writing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Fossheim.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fossheim, M., Primicerio, R., Johannesen, E. et al. Recent warming leads to a rapid borealization of fish communities in the Arctic. Nature Clim Change 5, 673–677 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2647

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2647

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