Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean: Birds and Marine Mammals in a Changing Climate

ABSTRACTThe history of biotic exploitation for the continental margin (shelf and slope) of the Antarctic Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) is reviewed, with emphasis on the period from 1970 to 2010. In the Antarctic Peninsula portion, marine mammals were decimated by the 1970s and groundfish by the early 1980s. Fishing for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba began upon the demise of groundfish and now is the only fishing that remains in this region. Surveys show that cetacean and most groundfish stocks remain severely depressed, harvest of which is now prohibited by the International Whaling Commission and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). On the other hand, krill fishing in this region is underway and in recent years has contributed up to 72% of the Southern Ocean catch, depending on fishing conditions and the CCAMLR conservation measures in force. Elsewhere along the Antarctic continental margin, marine mammals were also severely depleted by the 1970s, followed directly by relatively low-level fisheries for krill that continued until the early 1990s. Recently in these areas, where fin-fishing is still allowed, fisheries for Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni have been initiated, with one of this fish's main prey, grenadiers Macrourus spp., being taken significantly as by-catch. Continental margin fishing currently accounts for ~25% of the total toothfish catch of the Southern Ocean. Fishing along the Antarctic continental margin, especially the Antarctic Peninsula region, is a clear case of both the tragedy of the commons and ‘fishing down the food web’.

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Overcoming the Obstacles Faced by Early Career Researchers in Marine Science: Lessons From the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2020.00692 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Madeleine J. Brasier ◽

Stacey McCormack ◽

Narissa Bax ◽

Jilda A. Caccavo ◽

Emma Cavan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Ocean ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Early Career ◽

Marine Science ◽

Ecosystem Assessment ◽

Early Career Researchers

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Climate Change Impacts on Polar Marine Ecosystems: Toward Robust Approaches for Managing Risks and Uncertainties

Frontiers in Climate ◽

10.3389/fclim.2021.733755 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Geir Ottersen ◽

Andrew J. Constable ◽

Anne B. Hollowed ◽

Kirstin K. Holsman ◽

Jess Melbourne-Thomas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Southern Ocean ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Weight Of Evidence ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Knowledge Gaps ◽

Intergovernmental Panel ◽

Changing Climate

The Polar Regions chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts on polar marine ecosystems and associated consequences for humans. It also includes identification of confidence for major findings based on agreement across studies and weight of evidence. Sources of uncertainty, from the extent of available datasets, to resolution of projection models, to the complexity and understanding of underlying social-ecological linkages and dynamics, can influence confidence. Here we, marine ecosystem scientists all having experience as lead authors of IPCC reports, examine the evolution of confidence in observed and projected climate-linked changes in polar ecosystems since SROCC. Further synthesis of literature on polar marine ecosystems has been undertaken, especially within IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group II; for the Southern Ocean also the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO). These publications incorporate new scientific findings that address some of the knowledge gaps identified in SROCC. While knowledge gaps have been narrowed, we still find that polar region assessments reflect pronounced geographical skewness in knowledge regarding the responses of marine life to changing climate and associated literature. There is also an imbalance in scientific focus; especially research in Antarctica is dominated by physical oceanography and cryosphere science with highly fragmented approaches and only short-term funding to ecology. There are clear indications that the scientific community has made substantial progress in its ability to project ecosystem responses to future climate change through the development of coupled biophysical models of the region facilitated by increased computer power allowing for improved resolution in space and time. Lastly, we point forward—providing recommendations for future advances for IPCC assessments.

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Observations and models to support the first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO)

Journal of Marine Systems ◽

10.1016/j.jmarsys.2019.05.008 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 197 ◽

pp. 103182 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

M.J. Brasier ◽

A. Constable ◽

J. Melbourne-Thomas ◽

R. Trebilco ◽

H. Griffiths ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Ocean ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Ecosystem Assessment

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The Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife: Birds and Marine Mammals of the Antarctic Continent and the Southern Ocean. By Hadoram Shirihai; illustrated by Brett Jarrett. Princeton (New Jersey): Princeton University Press. $49.50. 510 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 0‐691‐11414‐5. 2002.

The Quarterly Review of Biology ◽

10.1086/380030 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 364-365

Author(s):

Charles F Wurster

Keyword(s):

New Jersey ◽

Southern Ocean ◽

Marine Mammals ◽

Princeton University ◽

Antarctic Continent ◽

The Antarctic

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Emergence of multiple ocean ecosystem drivers in a large ensemble suite with an Earth system model

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-12-3301-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 3301-3320 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

K. B. Rodgers ◽

J. Lin ◽

T. L. Frölicher

Keyword(s):

Southern Ocean ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Earth System ◽

Biological Productivity ◽

The Tropics ◽

Ecosystem Drivers

Abstract. Marine ecosystems are increasingly stressed by human-induced changes. Marine ecosystem drivers that contribute to stressing ecosystems – including warming, acidification, deoxygenation and perturbations to biological productivity – can co-occur in space and time, but detecting their trends is complicated by the presence of noise associated with natural variability in the climate system. Here we use large initial-condition ensemble simulations with an Earth system model under a historical/RCP8.5 (representative concentration pathway 8.5) scenario over 1950–2100 to consider emergence characteristics for the four individual and combined drivers. Using a 1-standard-deviation (67% confidence) threshold of signal to noise to define emergence with a 30-year trend window, we show that ocean acidification emerges much earlier than other drivers, namely during the 20th century over most of the global ocean. For biological productivity, the anthropogenic signal does not emerge from the noise over most of the global ocean before the end of the 21st century. The early emergence pattern for sea surface temperature in low latitudes is reversed from that of subsurface oxygen inventories, where emergence occurs earlier in the Southern Ocean. For the combined multiple-driver field, 41% of the global ocean exhibits emergence for the 2005–2014 period, and 63% for the 2075–2084 period. The combined multiple-driver field reveals emergence patterns by the end of this century that are relatively high over much of the Southern Ocean, North Pacific, and Atlantic, but relatively low over the tropics and the South Pacific. For the case of two drivers, the tropics including habitats of coral reefs emerges earliest, with this driven by the joint effects of acidification and warming. It is precisely in the regions with pronounced emergence characteristics where marine ecosystems may be expected to be pushed outside of their comfort zone determined by the degree of natural background variability to which they are adapted. The results underscore the importance of sustained multi-decadal observing systems for monitoring multiple ecosystems drivers.

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The impact of the Messinian Salinity Crisis on marine biota

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5799 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Konstantina Agiadi ◽

Niklas Hohmann ◽

Giorgio Carnevale ◽

Elsa Gliozzi ◽

Constanza Faranda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Planktonic Foraminifera ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Functional Change ◽

Marine Biota ◽

Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽

Marine Fauna ◽

Independent Evidence ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

The Impact

<p>The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was the greatest paleoenvironmental perturbation the Mediterranean has ever seen. The literature is abundant in hypotheses on the repercussions of the MSC on organisms. However, all these are based on incomplete and still uncertain scenarios about the MSC evolution, as well as on the assumption that such a paleoenvironmental perturbation must have completely reset marine biota. Having prevailed for many decades now, this assumption has leaked from paleontology and geosciences to biological sciences, with numerous studies taking this scenario for granted instead of using it as a starting hypothesis to be tested. Here, we review and revise the marine fossil record across the Mediterranean from the Tortonian until the Zanclean to follow the current rules of nomenclature, correct misidentifications, and control for stratigraphic misplacements. We examine the composition of marine faunas, both taxonomically and considering the function of each group in the marine ecosystem and the transfer of energy through the marine food web. Specifically, we investigate the following functional groups: 1) primary producers, 2) secondary producers, 3) primary consumers, 4) secondary consumers, and 5) top predators. Our study includes sea grasses, phytoplankton, corals, benthic and planktonic foraminifera, bivalves, gastropods, brachiopods, echinoids, bryozoans, fishes, ostracods, and marine mammals. We calculate biodiversity indexes to provide independent evidence quantifying to what degree the marine fauna underwent:</p><ol><li>A drop of overall regional biodiversity of the Mediterranean due to environmental stress during the Messinian.</li> <li>A taxonomic and functional change between the Tortonian, Messinian, and the Zanclean, that is before and after the MSC, as well as during the precursor events to that actual crisis taking place after the Tortonian/Messinian boundary.</li> <li>The onset of the present-day west-to-east decreasing gradient in species richness, which has been related to the sea temperature and productivity gradients and the distance from the Gibraltar connection to the Atlantic.</li> </ol>

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Peer Review #2 of "Functional group based marine ecosystem assessment for the Bay of Biscay via elasticity analysis (v0.1)"

10.7287/peerj.7422v0.1/reviews/2 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Functional Group ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Bay Of Biscay ◽

Elasticity Analysis ◽

Ecosystem Assessment

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From sea ice to seals: a moored marine ecosystem observatory in the Arctic

Ocean Science ◽

10.5194/os-14-1423-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (6) ◽

pp. 1423-1433 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Claudine Hauri ◽

Seth Danielson ◽

Andrew M. P. McDonnell ◽

Russell R. Hopcroft ◽

Peter Winsor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Marine Mammals ◽

Chukchi Sea ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Extreme Environment ◽

The Arctic ◽

Zooplankton Abundance ◽

Test Bed ◽

Ecosystem Monitoring ◽

Cold Temperatures

Abstract. Although Arctic marine ecosystems are changing rapidly, year-round monitoring is currently very limited and presents multiple challenges unique to this region. The Chukchi Ecosystem Observatory (CEO) described here uses new sensor technologies to meet needs for continuous, high-resolution, and year-round observations across all levels of the ecosystem in the biologically productive and seasonally ice-covered Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. This mooring array records a broad suite of variables that facilitate observations, yielding better understanding of physical, chemical, and biological couplings, phenologies, and the overall state of this Arctic shelf marine ecosystem. While cold temperatures and 8 months of sea ice cover present challenging conditions for the operation of the CEO, this extreme environment also serves as a rigorous test bed for innovative ecosystem monitoring strategies. Here, we present data from the 2015–2016 CEO deployments that provide new perspectives on the seasonal evolution of sea ice, water column structure, and physical properties, annual cycles in nitrate, dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton blooms, and export, zooplankton abundance and vertical migration, the occurrence of Arctic cod, and vocalizations of marine mammals such as bearded seals. These integrated ecosystem observations are being combined with ship-based observations and modeling to produce a time series that documents biological community responses to changing seasonal sea ice and water temperatures while establishing a scientific basis for ecosystem management.

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