Authors
Thomas Wernberg, Scott Bennett, Russell C Babcock, Thibaut De Bettignies, Katherine Cure, Martial Depczynski, Francois Dufois, Jane Fromont, Christopher J Fulton, Renae K Hovey, Euan S Harvey, Thomas H Holmes, Gary A Kendrick, Ben Radford, Julia Santana-Garcon, Benjamin J Saunders, Dan A Smale, Mads S Thomsen, Chenae A Tuckett, Fernando Tuya, Mathew A Vanderklift, Shaun Wilson
Publication date
2016/7/8
Journal
Science
Volume
353
Issue
6295
Pages
169-172
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Description
Ecosystem reconfigurations arising from climate-driven changes in species distributions are expected to have profound ecological, social, and economic implications. Here we reveal a rapid climate-driven regime shift of Australian temperate reef communities, which lost their defining kelp forests and became dominated by persistent seaweed turfs. After decades of ocean warming, extreme marine heat waves forced a 100-kilometer range contraction of extensive kelp forests and saw temperate species replaced by seaweeds, invertebrates, corals, and fishes characteristic of subtropical and tropical waters. This community-wide tropicalization fundamentally altered key ecological processes, suppressing the recovery of kelp forests.
Scholar articles
T Wernberg, S Bennett, RC Babcock, T De Bettignies… - Science, 2016
J SANTANA-GARCON, MA VANDERKLIFT… - Null, 2016