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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Pip MooreORCiD
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© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. The global ocean has warmed substantially over the past century, with far-reaching implications for marine ecosystems 1 . Concurrent with long-term persistent warming, discrete periods of extreme regional ocean warming (marine heatwaves, MHWs) have increased in frequency 2 . Here we quantify trends and attributes of MHWs across all ocean basins and examine their biological impacts from species to ecosystems. Multiple regions in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans are particularly vulnerable to MHW intensification, due to the co-existence of high levels of biodiversity, a prevalence of species found at their warm range edges or concurrent non-climatic human impacts. The physical attributes of prominent MHWs varied considerably, but all had deleterious impacts across a range of biological processes and taxa, including critical foundation species (corals, seagrasses and kelps). MHWs, which will probably intensify with anthropogenic climate change 3 , are rapidly emerging as forceful agents of disturbance with the capacity to restructure entire ecosystems and disrupt the provision of ecological goods and services in coming decades.
Author(s): Smale DA, Wernberg T, Oliver ECJ, Thomsen M, Harvey BP, Straub SC, Burrows MT, Alexander LV, Benthuysen JA, Donat MG, Feng M, Hobday AJ, Holbrook NJ, Perkins-Kirkpatrick SE, Scannell HA, Sen Gupta A, Payne BL, Moore PJ
Publication type: Letter
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Climate Change
Year: 2019
Volume: 9
Issue: 4
Pages: 306-312
Print publication date: 01/04/2019
Online publication date: 04/03/2019
Acceptance date: 14/01/2019
ISSN (print): 1758-678X
ISSN (electronic): 1758-6798
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0412-1
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-019-0412-1
