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The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts

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  • Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems, changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases, and from algal forests to ‘barrens’ when temperate urchin grazing increases. Here, we propose a novel phase-shift away from macroalgal dominance caused by tropical herbivores extending their range into temperate regions. We argue that this phase shift is facilitated by poleward-flowing boundary currents that are creating ocean warming hotspots around the globe, enabling the range expansion of tropical species and increasing their grazing rates in temperate areas. Overgrazing of temperate macroalgae by tropical herbivorous fishes has already occurred in Japan and the Mediterranean. Emerging evidence suggests similar phenomena are occurring in other temperate regions, with increasing occurrence of tropical fish on temperate reefs.
  • This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by the Author(s) and published by The Royal Society. It can be found at: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/
  • Keywords: tropicalisation, herbivory, macroalgae, phase shift, herbivorous fish, range shift, ecosystem impacts, western boundary currents, Climate change, functional diversity
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  • Vergés, A., Steinberg, P. D., Hay, M. E., Poore, A. G. B., Campbell, A. H., Ballesteros, E., ... & Wilson, S. K. (2014). The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1789), 20140846. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0846
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  • 281
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  • 1789
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  • This study was funded by the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, UNSW. Additional funding was provided by a UNSW Faculty of Science Visiting Research Fellowship to K.H. This is contribution 133 by the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.
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file details TomasFionaFisheriesWildlifeTropicalizationTemperateMarine.pdf 10/27/2017 Public
file details TomasFionaFisheriesWildlifeTropicalizationTemperateMarine(SupplementaryMaterialTableS1).pdf 10/27/2017 Public