Climate-driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem

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…

• AI
  Australian Institute of Marine Science
• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Award: NE/K008439/1
• CS
  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
• FR
  Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
• AN
  Australian National University
• HS
  Hermon Slade Foundation
• RS
  Royal Society Te Apārangi
• DO
  Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Award: NE/K008439/1
• AR
  Australian Research Council