Regional climatic warming drives long-term community changes of British marine fish
Regional climatic warming drives long-term community changes of British marine fish
Climatic change has been implicated as the cause of abundance fluctuations in marine fish populations
worldwide, but the effects on whole communities are poorly understood. We examined the effects of
regional climatic change on two fish assemblages using independent datasets from inshore marine (English
Channel, 1913–2002) and estuarine environments (Bristol Channel, 1981–2001). Our results show that
climatic change has had dramatic effects on community composition. Each assemblage contained a subset
of dominant species whose abundances were strongly linked to annual mean sea-surface temperature.
Species’ latitudinal ranges were not good predictors of species-level responses, however, and the same
species did not show congruent trends between sites. This suggests that within a region, populations of the
same species may respond differently to climatic change, possibly owing to additional local environmental
determinants, interspecific ecological interactions and dispersal capacity. This will make species-level
responses difficult to predict within geographically differentiated communities.
fisheries, temperature, community structure, marine ecosystems
655-661
Genner, M.J.
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Sims, D.W.
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Wearmouth, V.J.
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Southall, E.J.
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Southward, A.J.
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Henderson, P.A.
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Hawkins, S.J.
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9 February 2004
Genner, M.J.
bfd02462-1b20-4396-91f0-3b1849c92d48
Sims, D.W.
729a7e2c-0000-44c8-b226-aef7a8f40941
Wearmouth, V.J.
61021c4d-d838-45c7-918f-f8ade4f9d895
Southall, E.J.
c34cff1a-3d01-4ec0-8a78-2b7c07ea4920
Southward, A.J.
7e2c2f90-5b45-40aa-9789-cada57191e3f
Henderson, P.A.
b7dc37e8-427b-4feb-8d23-1ac05e2d6a55
Hawkins, S.J.
758fe1c1-30cd-4ed1-bb65-2471dc7c11fa
Genner, M.J., Sims, D.W., Wearmouth, V.J., Southall, E.J., Southward, A.J., Henderson, P.A. and Hawkins, S.J.
(2004)
Regional climatic warming drives long-term community changes of British marine fish.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271 (1539), .
(doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2651).
Abstract
Climatic change has been implicated as the cause of abundance fluctuations in marine fish populations
worldwide, but the effects on whole communities are poorly understood. We examined the effects of
regional climatic change on two fish assemblages using independent datasets from inshore marine (English
Channel, 1913–2002) and estuarine environments (Bristol Channel, 1981–2001). Our results show that
climatic change has had dramatic effects on community composition. Each assemblage contained a subset
of dominant species whose abundances were strongly linked to annual mean sea-surface temperature.
Species’ latitudinal ranges were not good predictors of species-level responses, however, and the same
species did not show congruent trends between sites. This suggests that within a region, populations of the
same species may respond differently to climatic change, possibly owing to additional local environmental
determinants, interspecific ecological interactions and dispersal capacity. This will make species-level
responses difficult to predict within geographically differentiated communities.
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Submitted date: 8 September 2003
Published date: 9 February 2004
Keywords:
fisheries, temperature, community structure, marine ecosystems
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 26169
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/26169
ISSN: 1471-2954
PURE UUID: 072f3c2a-da69-4b6a-b176-49b28742fb1d
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Date deposited: 24 Apr 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:08
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Contributors
Author:
M.J. Genner
Author:
D.W. Sims
Author:
V.J. Wearmouth
Author:
E.J. Southall
Author:
A.J. Southward
Author:
P.A. Henderson
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