Impact of climate-induced dynamics on a coastal benthic ecosystem from the West Antarctic Peninsula

Climate change is globally recognized to pose a serious threat to sustainable human development and to the future of our planet. Both the palaeoclimate and the recent global warming have exhibited larger magnitude of effects on both polar regions (the so-called polar amplification), with some areas...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pasotti, Francesca
Other Authors: Vanreusel, Ann
Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
Language:English
Published: Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences 2015
Subjects:
Ice
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/5993293
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-5993293
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/5993293/file/5993303
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Summary:Climate change is globally recognized to pose a serious threat to sustainable human development and to the future of our planet. Both the palaeoclimate and the recent global warming have exhibited larger magnitude of effects on both polar regions (the so-called polar amplification), with some areas showing increases in mean air temperatures double that of the global average at both poles. In the Antarctic there is a strong regional pattern in the effects of climate change. The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region, the area hosting the highest biodiversity of the whole Antarctic continent, is one of the fastest warming (and changing) regions of the planet, whereas the continental Antarctic presents a general cooling trend. In the WAP air temperatures have increased in both summer and winter (1950-2001: summer + 2.4 ± 1.7°C century-1, autumn +6.2 ± 6.0°C century-1), the sea ice (land fastened ice – or fast ice – versus drift and “pack” ice) ‘season’ and extent have dramatically reduced and more than 87% of the WAP glaciers have actively retreated in the past decades. The increases in glacier retreat observed since as early as the 1930-1950s are coupled to intense summer glacial discharge (e.g. via glacial melt waters), snow and permafrost melting and related effects on coastal sea water turbidity and salinity. Moreover, the decrease in fast ice season has led to higher frequency of iceberg scouring, the major driver of Antarctic shelf biodiversity. All these processes affect the marine coastal communities with direct and indirect effects. The increase in intensity of the observed changes in the WAP appears to fall yet among the natural variability of the past 380-2000 years of climatic history of the region, but anthropogenic drivers are foreseen to become more important in the whole continent by the end of 21st century. Therefore, the understanding of biological responses to the WAP the recent environmental change context represents a fundamental baseline for the deepening of our knowledge on benthic assemblages ...