Ocean Ecology Lab, Marine Mammal Institute, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Newport, OR, 97365, USA.
National Academy of Sciences NRC Postdoctoral Research Associateship, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA, 98112, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 13;15(1):1988. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46263-2.
The prevalence and intensity of marine heatwaves is increasing globally, disrupting local environmental conditions. The individual and population-level impacts of prolonged heatwaves on marine species have recently been demonstrated, yet whole-ecosystem consequences remain unexplored. We leveraged time series abundance data of 361 taxa, grouped into 86 functional groups, from six long-term surveys, diet information from a new diet database, and previous modeling efforts, to build two food web networks using an extension of the popular Ecopath ecosystem modeling framework, Ecotran. We compare ecosystem models parameterized before and after the onset of recent marine heatwaves to evaluate the cascading effects on ecosystem structure and function in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. While the ecosystem-level contribution (prey) and demand (predators) of most functional groups changed following the heatwaves, gelatinous taxa experienced the largest transformations, underscored by the arrival of northward-expanding pyrosomes. We show altered trophic relationships and energy flux have potentially profound consequences for ecosystem structure and function, and raise concerns for populations of threatened and harvested species.
海洋热浪的普遍性和强度在全球范围内正在增加，扰乱了当地的环境条件。最近已经证明了长时间热浪对海洋物种个体和种群水平的影响，但整个生态系统的后果仍未得到探索。我们利用了六个长期调查的 361 个分类群的时间序列丰度数据，这些分类群分为 86 个功能组，从新的饮食数据库中的饮食信息以及以前的建模工作中，使用流行的 Ecopath 生态系统建模框架的扩展 Ecotran 构建了两个食物网网络。我们比较了在最近海洋热浪发生前后参数化的生态系统模型，以评估其对东北太平洋生态系统结构和功能的级联效应。虽然大多数功能组的生态系统水平的贡献（猎物）和需求（捕食者）在热浪之后发生了变化，但凝胶状分类群经历了最大的变化，这突出了向北扩展的 Pyrosomes 的到来。我们表明，改变的营养关系和能量通量可能对生态系统结构和功能产生深远的影响，并引起对受威胁和收获物种种群的关注。
