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Climate velocity reveals increasing exposure of deep-ocean biodiversity to future warming

Nature Climate Change volume 10, pages 576–581 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Slower warming in the deep ocean encourages a perception that its biodiversity is less exposed to climate change than that of surface waters. We challenge this notion by analysing climate velocity, which provides expectations for species’ range shifts. We find that contemporary (1955–2005) climate velocities are faster in the deep ocean than at the surface. Moreover, projected climate velocities in the future (2050–2100) are faster for all depth layers, except at the surface, under the most aggressive GHG mitigation pathway considered (representative concentration pathway, RCP 2.6). This suggests that while mitigation could limit climate change threats for surface biodiversity, deep-ocean biodiversity faces an unavoidable escalation in climate velocities, most prominently in the mesopelagic (200–1,000 m). To optimize opportunities for climate adaptation among deep-ocean communities, future open-ocean protected areas must be designed to retain species moving at different speeds at different depths under climate change while managing non-climate threats, such as fishing and mining.

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Fig. 1: Climate velocity (km per decade) in the global ocean.
Fig. 2: The relationship between contemporary climate velocity and marine biodiversity.
Fig. 3: Future distribution of thermal habitat presently within large (>100,000 km2) MPAs.

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Data availability

Ocean temperature rasters for each depth layer (historical and RCPs scenarios) are available at Zenodo under the identifier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3596584. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to I.B.M.

Code availability

Scripts are available at Zenodo under the identifier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3596584.

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Acknowledgements

I.B.M. is supported by the Advanced Human Capital Program of the Chilean National Research and Development Agency (grant no. 72170231). A.J.R. is supported by Australian Government grant no. ARC DP190102293. J.G.M. is funded by the Tenure-Track System Promotion Program of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. N.A.D. is supported by the Fundación Bancaria ‘la Caixa’ Postgraduate Fellowship (LCF/BQ/AA16/11580053). C.J.K. is supported by The University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Isaac Brito-Morales, Carissa J. Klein & Nur Arafeh-Dalmau

  2. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Oceans and Atmosphere, BioSciences Precinct (QBP), St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Isaac Brito-Morales & Anthony J. Richardson

  3. Global-Change Ecology Research Group, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia

    David S. Schoeman

  4. Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    David S. Schoeman

  5. Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Jorge García Molinos

  6. Global Station for Arctic Research, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Jorge García Molinos

  7. School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Jorge García Molinos

  8. Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, UK

    Michael T. Burrows

  9. Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Nur Arafeh-Dalmau

  10. Department of Biometry and Environmental Systems Analysis, Albert‐Ludwigs University, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Kristin Kaschner

  11. GEOMAR, Helmholtz‐Zentrum für Ozeanforschung, Kiel, Germany

    Cristina Garilao

  12. Quantitative Aquatics, International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines

    Kathleen Kesner-Reyes

  13. Centre for Applications in Natural Resource Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Anthony J. Richardson

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  1. Isaac Brito-Morales
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Contributions

I.B.M., D.S.S. and A.J.R. conceived the research. K.K., C.G. and K.K.R. provided the marine biodiversity data. I.B.M and D.S.S. analysed the data. I.B.M, D.S.S. and A.J.R. wrote the first draft. I.B.M., D.S.S., A.J.R., J.G.M., M.T.B., N.A.D. and C.J.K. contributed equally to discussion of ideas and analyses. All authors commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Isaac Brito-Morales.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Climate Change thanks Conor Waldock and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Temporal trend component of climate velocity.

a, Temporal trend (°C decade−1) for contemporary (1955–2005) and projected sea temperatures (2050–2100) at four different depths in the ocean under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). b, Median climate velocity values by 1° of latitude. White bands in deeper layers represent areas where there is no water because of seafloor features extending into pelagic zones.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Spatial gradient component of climate velocity.

a, Spatial gradient (°C km−1) for contemporary (1955–2005) and projected sea temperatures (2050–2100) at four different depths in the ocean under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). b, Median climate velocity values by 1° of latitude. White bands in deeper layers represents areas where there is no water because of seafloor features extending into pelagic zones.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Direction of climate velocity.

Direction of climate velocity for contemporary (1955–2005) and projected future sea temperatures (2050–2100) at four different depths in the ocean under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Directions standardized by hemisphere to poleward/equatorward directions.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Global changes in temperature by 2100 relative to 2019.

Global changes in temperature conditions at four different layers in the ocean by 2100 relative to present day conditions (2019) under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). White grid squares in deeper layers represent areas where seafloor features extending upward toward the surface mean that there are no sea temperature data available at this depth.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Species richness for three ocean layers in the ocean.

Species richness with a probability of occurrence > 0.5 for three different layers in the ocean. Polygons represent MPAs with areas > 100,000 km2 (n = 23). Grey cells represent missing species richness data for that depth layer, given the threshold for probability of occurrence.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Standard errors associated to the linear temporal trend component of climate velocity.

Standard errors (°C decade−1) associated to the linear temporal trend component of climate velocity for contemporary (1955–2005) and projected future sea temperatures (2050–2100) at four different depths in the ocean under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). White grid squares in deeper layers represent areas where seafloor features extending upward toward the surface mean that there are no sea temperature data available at this depth.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Interquartile range of climate velocity among models.

Interquartile range (75th–25th) of climate velocity among models (n = 11) for contemporary (1955–2005) and projected future sea temperatures (2050–2100) at five different depths in the ocean and under three IPCC scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). White grid squares in deeper layers represent areas where seafloor features extending upward toward the surface mean that there are no sea temperature data available at this depth.

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Brito-Morales, I., Schoeman, D.S., Molinos, J.G. et al. Climate velocity reveals increasing exposure of deep-ocean biodiversity to future warming. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 576–581 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0773-5

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