Document of bibliographic reference 245381

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

The importance of within-system spatial variation in drivers of marine ecosystem regime shifts

Abstract

Comparative analyses of the dynamics of exploited marine ecosystems have led to differing hypotheses regarding the primary causes of observed regime shifts, while many ecosystems have apparently not undergone regime shifts. These varied responses may be partly explained by the decade-old recognition that within-system spatial heterogeneity in key climate and anthropogenic drivers may be important, as recent theoretical examinations have concluded that spatial heterogeneity in environmental characteristics may diminish the tendency for regime shifts. Here, we synthesize recent, empirical within-system spatio-temporal analyses of some temperate and subarctic large marine ecosystemsin which regime shifts have (and have not) occurred. Examples from the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Bengula Current, North Sea, Barents Sea and Eastern Scotian Shelf reveal the largely neglected importance of considering spatial variability in key biotic and abiotic influences and species movements in the context of evaluating and predicting regime shifts.We highlight both the importance of understanding the scale-dependent spatial dynamics of climate influences and key predator–prey interactions to unravel the dynamics of regime shifts, and the utility of spatial downscaling of proposed mechanisms (as evident in the North Sea and Barents Sea) as a means of evaluating hypotheses originally derived from among-system comparisons.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000346147200009

Bibliographic citation

Fisher, J.A.D.; Casini, M.; Frank, K.T.; Möllmann, C.; Leggett, W.C.; Daskalov, G. (2015). The importance of within-system spatial variation in drivers of marine ecosystem regime shifts. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. (B Biol. Sci.) 370(1659): 20130271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0271

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true