Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/68985
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Type: Journal article
Title: Seaweed communities in retreat from ocean warming
Author: Wernberg-Moller, T.
Russell, B.
Thomsen, M.
Gurgel, C.
Bradshaw, C.
Poloczanska, E.
Connell, S.
Citation: Current Biology, 2011; 21(21):1828-1832
Publisher: Dell Press
Issue Date: 2011
ISSN: 0960-9822
1879-0445
Statement of
Responsibility: 
Thomas Wernberg, Bayden D. Russell, Mads S. Thomsen, C. Frederico D. Gurgel, Corey J.A. Bradshaw, Elvira S. Poloczanska and Sean D. Connell
Abstract: In recent decades, global climate change [1] has caused profound biological changes across the planet [2-6]. However, there is a great disparity in the strength of evidence among different ecosystems and between hemispheres: changes on land have been well documented through long-term studies, but similar direct evidence for impacts of warming is virtually absent from the oceans [3, 7], where only a few studies on individual species of intertidal invertebrates, plankton, and commercially important fish in the North Atlantic and North Pacific exist. This disparity of evidence is precarious for biological conservation because of the critical role of the marine realm in regulating the Earth's environmental and ecological functions, and the associated socioeconomic well-being of humans [8]. We interrogated a database of >20,000 herbarium records of macroalgae collected in Australia since the 1940s and documented changes in communities and geographical distribution limits in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans, consistent with rapid warming over the past five decades [9, 10]. We show that continued warming might drive potentially hundreds of species toward and beyond the edge of the Australian continent where sustained retreat is impossible. The potential for global extinctions is profound considering the many endemic seaweeds and seaweed-dependent marine organisms in temperate Australia.
Keywords: Seaweed
Ecosystem
Databases, Factual
Australia
Indian Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Climate Change
Aquatic Organisms
Rights: © 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.028
Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.028
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest 5
Earth and Environmental Sciences publications
Environment Institute Leaders publications
Environment Institute publications

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