Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change
Global warming occurs at elevated rates in the Arctic. Continued warming is predicted to cause ecosystem-wide cascading effects as boreal species expand into the region. However, current species distribution and knowledge of drivers affecting community structure are largely unknown, and little is th...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Conference Object |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a |
id |
ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a 2024-09-09T19:15:25+00:00 Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change Thyrring, Jakob Blicher, Martin E. Krause-Jensen, Dorte Høgslund, Signe Olesen, Birgit Wiktor Jr., Jozef Mouritsen, Kim Nørgaard Peck, Lloyd S Wegeberg, Susse Sejr, Mikael Kristian 2020 https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a eng eng https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Thyrring , J , Blicher , M E , Krause-Jensen , D , Høgslund , S , Olesen , B , Wiktor Jr. , J , Mouritsen , K N , Peck , L S , Wegeberg , S & Sejr , M K 2020 , ' Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change ' , Arctic Change 2020 , 07/12/2020 - 10/12/2020 . conferenceObject 2020 ftuniaarhuspubl 2024-06-18T14:19:38Z Global warming occurs at elevated rates in the Arctic. Continued warming is predicted to cause ecosystem-wide cascading effects as boreal species expand into the region. However, current species distribution and knowledge of drivers affecting community structure are largely unknown, and little is therefore known about the resilience of Arctic marine ecosystems to environmental change. The West Greenland coast is north-south orientated, which provides an ideal setting to study the impact of climate change on ecosystem dynamics and species distribution. We used this coastline to investigated latitudinal changes in the rocky intertidal ecosystem along 12° of latitude, from the subarctic to High Arctic (60–72°N). Using 320 cleared quadrats we quantified patterns in rocky intertidal assemblage composition, biomass and coverage in six regions. We related the level and variation in assemblage composition, biomass and coverage to multiple latitudinal-scale environmental drivers. We show that across all latitudes, the intertidal assemblage is dominated by a core of stress-tolerant foundation species, and we describe the effects of the investigated environmental drivers, and demonstrate that although mean biomasses decreased >50% from south to north, local biomass in excess of 10 000 g ww m-2 is found even in north Greenland, demonstrating the patchiness of this habitat. The results furthermore show that the effect of small-scale variation in environmental characteristics may be of same magnitude as large-scale variation. Hence, using the latitudinal gradient in a space-for-time substitution, our results suggest that while climate modification may lead to an overall increase in the intertidal biomass in north Greenland, it is unlikely to drive dramatic functional changes in ecosystem structure in the near future. Our dataset provides an important baseline for future studies to verify these predictions for Greenland’s intertidal zone. Conference Object Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland North Greenland Subarctic Aarhus University: Research Arctic Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Aarhus University: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftuniaarhuspubl |
language |
English |
description |
Global warming occurs at elevated rates in the Arctic. Continued warming is predicted to cause ecosystem-wide cascading effects as boreal species expand into the region. However, current species distribution and knowledge of drivers affecting community structure are largely unknown, and little is therefore known about the resilience of Arctic marine ecosystems to environmental change. The West Greenland coast is north-south orientated, which provides an ideal setting to study the impact of climate change on ecosystem dynamics and species distribution. We used this coastline to investigated latitudinal changes in the rocky intertidal ecosystem along 12° of latitude, from the subarctic to High Arctic (60–72°N). Using 320 cleared quadrats we quantified patterns in rocky intertidal assemblage composition, biomass and coverage in six regions. We related the level and variation in assemblage composition, biomass and coverage to multiple latitudinal-scale environmental drivers. We show that across all latitudes, the intertidal assemblage is dominated by a core of stress-tolerant foundation species, and we describe the effects of the investigated environmental drivers, and demonstrate that although mean biomasses decreased >50% from south to north, local biomass in excess of 10 000 g ww m-2 is found even in north Greenland, demonstrating the patchiness of this habitat. The results furthermore show that the effect of small-scale variation in environmental characteristics may be of same magnitude as large-scale variation. Hence, using the latitudinal gradient in a space-for-time substitution, our results suggest that while climate modification may lead to an overall increase in the intertidal biomass in north Greenland, it is unlikely to drive dramatic functional changes in ecosystem structure in the near future. Our dataset provides an important baseline for future studies to verify these predictions for Greenland’s intertidal zone. |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Thyrring, Jakob Blicher, Martin E. Krause-Jensen, Dorte Høgslund, Signe Olesen, Birgit Wiktor Jr., Jozef Mouritsen, Kim Nørgaard Peck, Lloyd S Wegeberg, Susse Sejr, Mikael Kristian |
spellingShingle |
Thyrring, Jakob Blicher, Martin E. Krause-Jensen, Dorte Høgslund, Signe Olesen, Birgit Wiktor Jr., Jozef Mouritsen, Kim Nørgaard Peck, Lloyd S Wegeberg, Susse Sejr, Mikael Kristian Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
author_facet |
Thyrring, Jakob Blicher, Martin E. Krause-Jensen, Dorte Høgslund, Signe Olesen, Birgit Wiktor Jr., Jozef Mouritsen, Kim Nørgaard Peck, Lloyd S Wegeberg, Susse Sejr, Mikael Kristian |
author_sort |
Thyrring, Jakob |
title |
Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
title_short |
Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
title_full |
Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
title_fullStr |
Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
title_sort |
latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in west greenland suggest resilience to climate change |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland North Greenland Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland North Greenland Subarctic |
op_source |
Thyrring , J , Blicher , M E , Krause-Jensen , D , Høgslund , S , Olesen , B , Wiktor Jr. , J , Mouritsen , K N , Peck , L S , Wegeberg , S & Sejr , M K 2020 , ' Latitudinal patterns in intertidal ecosystem structure in West Greenland suggest resilience to climate change ' , Arctic Change 2020 , 07/12/2020 - 10/12/2020 . |
op_relation |
https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/ce39b259-1b90-4530-9ad0-95f2ceb1bf8a |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1809755479512973312 |