Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic
Accelerating warming and associated loss of sea ice are expected to promote the expansion of coastal marine forests (macrophytes) along the massive Arctic coastlines. Yet, this region has received much less attention compared to other global oceans. The available future projections of Arctic macroph...
Published in: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 2024-06-23T07:49:10+00:00 Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic Assis, Jorge Serrão, Ester A. Duarte, Carlos M. Fragkopoulou, Eliza Krause-Jensen, Dorte 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 journal-article 2022 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 2024-06-04T05:52:45Z Accelerating warming and associated loss of sea ice are expected to promote the expansion of coastal marine forests (macrophytes) along the massive Arctic coastlines. Yet, this region has received much less attention compared to other global oceans. The available future projections of Arctic macrophytes are still limited to few species and regions, and mostly focused at lower latitude ranges, thus precluding well-informed IPCC impact assessments, conservation and management. Here we aim to quantify potential distributional changes of Arctic intertidal and subtidal brown macroalgae and eelgrass by the year 2100, relative to present. We estimate habitat suitability by means of species distribution modeling, considering changes in seawater temperature, salinity, nutrients and sea ice cover under two greenhouse gas emission scenarios, one consistent with the Paris Agreement (RCP 2.6) and the other representing limited mitigation strategies (RCP 8.5). As data on substrate conditions do not exist, the models were restricted to the depth range supporting Arctic macrophytes (down to 5 m for eelgrass and 30 m for brown macroalgae). Models projected major expansions of Arctic macrophytes between 69,940 and 123,360 km 2 , depending on the climate scenario, with polar distribution limits shifting northwards by up to 1.5 latitude degrees at 21.81 km per decade. Such expansions in response to changing climate will likely elicit major changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the future Arctic. Expansions are, however, less intense than those already realized over the past century, indicating an overall slowing down despite accelerated warming as habitats become increasingly occupied. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice Frontiers (Publisher) Arctic Frontiers in Marine Science 9 |
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Accelerating warming and associated loss of sea ice are expected to promote the expansion of coastal marine forests (macrophytes) along the massive Arctic coastlines. Yet, this region has received much less attention compared to other global oceans. The available future projections of Arctic macrophytes are still limited to few species and regions, and mostly focused at lower latitude ranges, thus precluding well-informed IPCC impact assessments, conservation and management. Here we aim to quantify potential distributional changes of Arctic intertidal and subtidal brown macroalgae and eelgrass by the year 2100, relative to present. We estimate habitat suitability by means of species distribution modeling, considering changes in seawater temperature, salinity, nutrients and sea ice cover under two greenhouse gas emission scenarios, one consistent with the Paris Agreement (RCP 2.6) and the other representing limited mitigation strategies (RCP 8.5). As data on substrate conditions do not exist, the models were restricted to the depth range supporting Arctic macrophytes (down to 5 m for eelgrass and 30 m for brown macroalgae). Models projected major expansions of Arctic macrophytes between 69,940 and 123,360 km 2 , depending on the climate scenario, with polar distribution limits shifting northwards by up to 1.5 latitude degrees at 21.81 km per decade. Such expansions in response to changing climate will likely elicit major changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the future Arctic. Expansions are, however, less intense than those already realized over the past century, indicating an overall slowing down despite accelerated warming as habitats become increasingly occupied. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Assis, Jorge Serrão, Ester A. Duarte, Carlos M. Fragkopoulou, Eliza Krause-Jensen, Dorte |
spellingShingle |
Assis, Jorge Serrão, Ester A. Duarte, Carlos M. Fragkopoulou, Eliza Krause-Jensen, Dorte Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
author_facet |
Assis, Jorge Serrão, Ester A. Duarte, Carlos M. Fragkopoulou, Eliza Krause-Jensen, Dorte |
author_sort |
Assis, Jorge |
title |
Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
title_short |
Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
title_full |
Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Major Expansion of Marine Forests in a Warmer Arctic |
title_sort |
major expansion of marine forests in a warmer arctic |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368/full |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.850368 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
9 |
_version_ |
1802639441605427200 |