Carlot J, Galobart C, Gómez-Gras D, Santamaría J, Golo R, Sini M, Cebrian E, Gerovasileiou V, Ponti M, Turicchia E, Comeau S, Rilov G, Tamburello L, Pulido Mantas T, Cerrano C, Ledoux J B, Gattuso J-P, Ramirez-Calero S, Millan L, Montefalcone M, Katsanevakis S, Bensoussan N, Garrabou J, Teixidó N
Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Villefranche-sur-mer, France.
Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Girona, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2025 Feb 12;16(1):1571. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-55949-0.
Unraveling the functional future of marine ecosystems amid global change poses a pressing challenge. This is particularly critical in the Mediterranean Sea, which is highly impacted by global and local drivers. Utilizing extensive mass mortality events (MMEs) datasets spanning from 1986 to 2020 across the Mediterranean Sea, we investigated the trait vulnerability of benthic species that suffered from MMEs induced by nine distinct mortality drivers. By analyzing changes in ten ecological traits across 389 benthic species-constituting an extensive compendium of Mediterranean ecological traits to date-we identified 228 functional entities (FEs), defined as groups of species sharing the same trait values. Our findings indicate that of these 55 FEs were impacted by MMEs, accentuating a heightened vulnerability within specific trait categories. Notably, more than half of the mortality records showed severe impacts on calcifying and larger species with slower growth which mostly account for tree-like and massive forms. Altogether, we highlight that 29 FEs suffered extreme mortality, leading to a maximum increase of 19.1% of the global trait volume vulnerability over 35 years. We also reveal that 10.8% of the trait volume may have been temporarily lost over the last five years, emphasizing the risk of a rapid ecological transformation in the Mediterranean Sea.
在全球变化背景下，揭示海洋生态系统的功能未来是一项紧迫的挑战。在地中海地区，这一挑战尤为关键，因为该地区受到全球和地方驱动因素的严重影响。利用1986年至2020年期间地中海地区广泛的大规模死亡事件（MMEs）数据集，我们调查了因九种不同死亡驱动因素引发的MMEs而遭受影响的底栖物种的性状脆弱性。通过分析389种底栖物种的十种生态性状变化（这些物种构成了迄今为止地中海生态性状的广泛汇编），我们识别出228个功能实体（FEs），定义为具有相同性状值的物种组。我们的研究结果表明，这些功能实体中有55个受到MMEs的影响，凸显了特定性状类别中更高的脆弱性。值得注意的是，超过一半的死亡记录显示对钙化物种和生长较慢的大型物种产生了严重影响，这些物种主要呈现树状和块状形态。总体而言，我们强调有29个功能实体遭受了极端死亡，导致35年内全球性状体积脆弱性最多增加了19.1%。我们还发现，在过去五年中，10.8%的性状体积可能暂时丧失，这凸显了地中海地区生态快速转变的风险。
