Heneghan Ryan F, Hatton Ian A, Galbraith Eric D
Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
Emerg Top Life Sci. 2019 May 10;3(2):233-243. doi: 10.1042/ETLS20190042.
Climate change is a complex global issue that is driving countless shifts in the structure and function of marine ecosystems. To better understand these shifts, many processes need to be considered, yet they are often approached from incompatible perspectives. This article reviews one relatively simple, integrated perspective: the abundance-size spectrum. We introduce the topic with a brief review of some of the ways climate change is expected to impact the marine ecosystem according to complex numerical models while acknowledging the limits to understanding posed by complex models. We then review how the size spectrum offers a simple conceptual alternative, given its regular power law size-frequency distribution when viewed on sufficiently broad scales. We further explore how anticipated physical aspects of climate change might manifest themselves through changes in the elevation, slope and regularity of the size spectrum, exposing mechanistic questions about integrated ecosystem structure, as well as how organism physiology and ecological interactions respond to multiple climatic stressors. Despite its application by ecosystem modellers and fisheries scientists, the size spectrum perspective is not widely used as a tool for monitoring ecosystem adaptation to climate change, providing a major opportunity for further research.
气候变化是一个复杂的全球性问题，正推动着海洋生态系统的结构和功能发生无数变化。为了更好地理解这些变化，需要考虑许多过程，但人们往往从不相容的角度来探讨它们。本文回顾了一个相对简单的综合视角：丰度-大小谱。我们在简要回顾根据复杂数值模型气候变化预计会影响海洋生态系统的一些方式的同时，承认复杂模型在理解方面存在的局限性，以此引入该主题。然后我们回顾大小谱如何提供一种简单的概念性替代方法，因为在足够宽泛的尺度上观察时，它具有规则的幂律大小-频率分布。我们进一步探讨气候变化预期的物理方面可能如何通过大小谱的高度、斜率和规律性变化表现出来，揭示有关生态系统综合结构的机制问题，以及生物体生理和生态相互作用如何应对多种气候压力源。尽管生态系统建模者和渔业科学家都应用了大小谱视角，但它并未广泛用作监测生态系统对气候变化适应情况的工具，这为进一步研究提供了一个重要契机。
