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Dulvy, Nicholas K., Rogers, Stuart I., Jennings, Simon 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2390-7225, Stelzenmüller, Vanessa, Dye, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4182-8475 and Skjoldal, Hein R.
(2008)
Climate change and deepening of the North Sea fish assemblage: A biotic indicator of warming seas.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 45 (4).
pp. 1029-1039.
ISSN 0021-8901
Abstract
1. Climate change impacts have been observed on individual species and species subsets; however, it remains to be seen whether there are systematic, coherent assemblage-wide responses to climate change that could be used as a representative indicator of changing biological state. 2. European shelf seas are warming faster than the adjacent land masses and faster than the global average. We explore the year-by-year distributional response of North Sea bottom-dwelling (demersal) fishes to temperature change over the 25 years from 1980 to 2004. The centres of latitudinal and depth distributions of 28 fishes were estimated from species-abundance-location data collected on an annual fish monitoring survey. 3. Individual species responses were aggregated into 19 assemblages reflecting physiology (thermal preference and range), ecology (body size and abundance-occupancy patterns), biogeography (northern, southern and presence of range boundaries), and susceptibility to human impact (fishery target, bycatch and non-target species). 4. North Sea winter bottom temperature has increased by 1.6°C over 25 years, with a 1°C increase in 1988-1989 alone. During this period, the whole demersal fish assemblage deepened by ∼3.6 m decade and the deepening was coherent for most assemblages. 5. The latitudinal response to warming was heterogeneous, and reflects (i) a northward shift in the mean latitude of abundant, widespread thermal specialists, and (ii) the southward shift of relatively small, abundant southerly species with limited occupancy and a northern range boundary in the North Sea. 6. Synthesis and applications. The deepening of North Sea bottom-dwelling fishes in response to climate change is the marine analogue of the upward movement of terrestrial species to higher altitudes. The assemblage-level depth responses, and both latitudinal responses, covary with temperature and environmental variability in a manner diagnostic of a climate change impact. The deepening of the demersal fish assemblage in response to temperature could be used as a biotic indicator of the effects of climate change in the North Sea and other semi-enclosed seas.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | climate change,habitat loss,invasive species,life-history trait,north sea,regime shift,thermal preference,sdg 13 - climate action,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2014 11:30 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2024 16:52 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/47506 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01488.x |
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