Gómez-Gras Daniel, Linares Cristina, Capdevila Pol
Departament Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
J Anim Ecol. 2025 Aug;94(8):1481-1491. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.70084.
As the climate crisis unfolds, marine heatwaves (MHWs), defined as discrete periods of anomalously high seawater temperatures, are emerging as one of the most pervasive threats to marine biodiversity worldwide. From coastal shallow waters to the deep sea, increasingly frequent and intense MHWs are reshaping ocean life at all levels of ecological organisation, undermining ecosystem resilience and compromising the provision of essential ecosystem services to human societies. This growing environmental challenge has rendered a new scientific discipline-marine heatwave ecology-which aims to advance our understanding, forecasting capacity and mitigation of MHW impacts on ecological systems. These priorities are central to marine science and conservation. Yet, despite increasing scientific attention, many critical research questions remain unresolved. In this cross-journal Special Feature, published across the Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology and Functional Ecology, we present a collection of 13 studies that address some of the most pressing knowledge gaps in MHW ecology. These studies were conducted across diverse ocean basins and encompass a wide range of marine taxa, such as corals, macroalgae, seagrasses, molluscs, fish and plankton, among others. They span multiple levels of ecological organisation, from individual organisms to entire ecosystems, and employ a variety of methodologies and approaches. Collectively, the contributions to this special feature demonstrate how MHWs erode ecosystem resilience, reveal previously hidden biological and ecological impacts and show that vulnerability not only depends on thermal tolerance but also on environmental context. The studies also explore how MHW effects cascade up and down across levels of ecological organisation and reinforce the importance of applying ecological frameworks to better categorise and understand MHW dynamics. Finally, we have identified remaining knowledge gaps to guide future research, essential to further develop the MHW ecology field and to inform more effective conservation and management strategies. This will be especially urgent in the context of a rapidly warming ocean, where strong and recurrent MHWs are becoming the new normal.
随着气候危机的不断发展，海洋热浪（MHWs），即海水温度异常偏高的离散时期，正成为全球海洋生物多样性面临的最普遍威胁之一。从沿海浅水区到深海，日益频繁和强烈的海洋热浪正在重塑各个生态组织层面的海洋生物，破坏生态系统的恢复力，并危及向人类社会提供重要的生态系统服务。这一日益严峻的环境挑战催生了一门新的科学学科——海洋热浪生态学，其旨在增进我们对海洋热浪对生态系统影响的理解、预测能力并减轻这些影响。这些优先事项是海洋科学和保护工作的核心。然而，尽管科学关注度不断提高，许多关键研究问题仍未得到解决。在这个跨期刊特刊中，该特刊发表于《动物生态学杂志》《生态学杂志》和《功能生态学》，我们呈现了13项研究的合集，这些研究解决了海洋热浪生态学中一些最紧迫的知识空白。这些研究在不同的海洋盆地进行，涵盖了广泛的海洋生物分类群，如珊瑚、大型藻类、海草、软体动物、鱼类和浮游生物等。它们跨越了从个体生物到整个生态系统的多个生态组织层面，并采用了各种方法和途径。总体而言，对这个特刊的贡献展示了海洋热浪如何侵蚀生态系统恢复力，揭示以前隐藏的生物和生态影响，并表明脆弱性不仅取决于耐热性，还取决于环境背景。这些研究还探讨了海洋热浪的影响如何在生态组织层面上下层叠，并强调了应用生态框架来更好地分类和理解海洋热浪动态的重要性。最后，我们确定了剩余的知识空白，以指导未来的研究，这对于进一步发展海洋热浪生态学领域并为更有效的保护和管理策略提供信息至关重要。在海洋迅速变暖的背景下，这将尤为紧迫，因为强烈且反复出现的海洋热浪正成为新常态。
