Matt Long (Oct 29 2020 at 18:36): Matt Long (Oct 29 2020 at 18:36):Climate-driven aerobic habitat loss in the California Current System
Climate warming is expected to intensify hypoxia in the California Current System (CCS), threatening its diverse
and productive marine ecosystem. We analyzed past regional variability and future changes in the Metabolic
Index (Φ), a species-specific measure of the environment’s capacity to meet temperature-dependent organismal
oxygen demand. Across the traits of diverse animals, Φ exhibits strong seasonal to interdecadal variations
throughout the CCS, implying that resident species already experience large fluctuations in available aerobic habitat. For a key CCS species, northern anchovy, the long-term biogeographic distribution and decadal fluctuations in abundance are both highly coherent with aerobic habitat volume. Ocean warming and oxygen loss by 2100 are
projected to decrease Φ below critical levels in 30 to 50% of anchovies’ present range, including complete loss of
aerobic habitat—and thus likely extirpation—from the southern CCS. Aerobic habitat loss will vary widely across
the traits of CCS taxa, disrupting ecological interactions throughout the region.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/6/20/eaay3188.full.pdf
Last updated: May 16 2025 at 17:14 UTC