Climate Change and the Marine Ecosystem of the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Résumé du livre

Reviews effects of rapid regional climate change on marine ecosystem of waters overlying continental shelf to west of Antarctic Peninsula from Marguerite Bay to Scotia Sea. Decrease of 10% per decade in winter sea ice extent in Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, and shorter seasonal duration, are seen as most likely to have affected marine fauna, principally through shifts in extent and timing of habitat for ice-associated biota. Warming of seawater below 100 m has not reached biologically significant levels, but continued warming or change in frequency of flooding of circumpolar deep water onto continental shelf may induce sub-lethal effects influencing ecological interactions and food-web operation. Suggests that evidence for recent changes in ecosystem may come from aspects of population dynamics recorded in skeletons of molluscs or brachiopods, or where ecological interactions are preserved in encrusting biota of hard substrata. Discusses possibility that southward shift of marine isotherms may induce parallel migration of some marine taxa similar to that observed on land. Complexity of Southern Ocean food web and nonlinear nature of many interactions mean that predictions based on short-term studies of small number of species are likely to be misleading. In special issue Antarctic ecology : from genes to ecosystems. Part 1.