Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:01:51.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paradigm misplaced? Antarctic marine ecosystems are affected by climate change as well as biological processes and harvesting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2007

Stephen Nicol ,
John Croxall ,
Phil Trathan ,
Nick Gales  and
Eugene Murphy
Stephen Nicol*
Affiliation:
Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia
John Croxall
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Phil Trathan
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Nick Gales
Affiliation:
Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia
Eugene Murphy
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
*
steve.nicol@aad.gov.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A recent review by Ainley et al. has suggested that recent investigations of the ecological structure and processes of the Southern Ocean have “almost exclusively taken a bottom-up, forcing-by-physical-processes approach relating individual species' population trends to climate change”. We examine this suggestion and conclude that, in fact, there has been considerable research effort into ecosystem interactions over the last 25 years, particularly through research associated with management of the living resources of the Southern Ocean. Future Southern Ocean research will make progress only when integrated studies are planned around well structured hypotheses that incorporate both the physical and biological drivers of ecosystem processes.

Keywords

climate changeecosystem processesSouthern Ocean
Type
Opinion
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 291 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnew, D.J. 1997. Review: the CCAMLR ecosystem monitoring programme. Antarctic Science, 9, 235–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ainley, D., Ballard, G., Ackley, S., Blight, L.K., Eastman, J.T., Emslie, S.D., Lescroel, A., Olmastroni, S., Townsend, S.E., Tynan, C.T., Wilson, P. & Woehler, E. 2007. Paradigm lost, or is top down forcing no longer significant in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Antarctic Science, 19. doi: 10.1017/S09541020070051X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, A.A., Siegel, V., Pakhomov, E. & Rothery, P. 2004. Long-term decline in krill stock and increase in salps within the Southern Ocean. Nature, 432, 100–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ballance, L.T., Pitman, R.L., Hewitt, R., Siniff, D., Trivelpiece, W., Clapham, P., Brownell, R.L. Jr 2006. The removal of large whales from the Southern Ocean: evidence for long-term ecosystem effects. In Estes, J.A., DeMaster, D.P., Doak, D.F., Williams, T.M. & Brownell, R.L. Jr, eds. Whales, whaling and ocean ecosystems. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 215–230.Google Scholar
Boyd, I.L., Wanless, S. & Camphuysen, C.J., eds. 2006. Top predators in marine ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 378 pp.Google Scholar
Croxall, J.P. 2006. Monitoring predator-prey interactions using multiple predator species: the South Georgia experience. In Boyd, I.L., Wanless, S. & Camphuysen, C.J., eds. Top predators in marine ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 157–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croxall, J.P. & Nicol, S. 2004 Management of Southern Ocean resources as a model for global sustainability. Antarctic Science, 16, 569–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croxall, J.P., Rootes, D.M. & Price, R. 1981. Increases in penguin populations at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin, No. 54, 47–56Google Scholar
Croxall, J.P., McCann, T.S., Prince, P.A. & Rothery, P. 1988. Reproductive performance of seabirds and seals at South Georgia and Signy Island 1976–1986: implications for Southern Ocean monitoring studies. In Sahrhage, D., ed. Antarctic Ocean and resources variability. Berlin: Springer, 261–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curran, M.A.J., Van Ommen, T.D., Morgan, V.I., Phillips, K.L. & Palmer, A.S. 2003 Ice core evidence for Antarctic sea ice decline since the 1950s. Science, 302, 1203–1206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De La Mare, W.K. 1997. Abrupt mid-twentieth century decline in Antarctic sea ice extent from whaling records. Nature, 389, 57–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De La Mare, W.K. 2001 Whaling records and changes in Antarctic sea ice: consistency with historical records. Polar Record, 38, 355–360CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forcada, J., Trathan, P.N., Reid, K. & Murphy, E.J. 2005. The effects of global climate variability in pup production of Antarctic fur seals. Ecology, 86, 2408–2417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forcada, J., Trathan, P.N., Reid, K., Murphy, E.J. & Croxall, J.P. 2006. Contrasting population changes in sympatric penguin species in association with climate warming. Global Change Biology, 12, 411–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, W.R., Trivelpiece, W.Z., Ainley, D.G. & Trivelpiece, S.G. 1992. Increases in Antarctic penguin populations - reduced competition with whales or a loss of sea ice due to environmental warming. Polar Biology, 11, 525–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamner, W.M. & Hamner, P.P. 2000. Behaviour of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba): schooling, foraging, and antipredatory behaviour. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 57(Suppl. S3), 192–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, R.P., Demer, D.A. & Emery, J.H. 2003. An 8-year cycle in krill biomass density inferred from acoustic surveys conducted in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands during the austral summers of 1991/92 through 2001/2002. Aquatic Living Resources, 16, 205–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, S.L., Murphy, E.J., Reid, K., Trathan, P.N. & Constable, A.J. 2006 Modelling Southern Ocean ecosystems: krill, the food-web, and the impacts of harvesting. Biological Reviews, 81, 581–608.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofmann, E.E., Wiebe, P.H., Costa, D.P. & Torres, J.J., eds. 2004. Integrated ecosystem studies of Western Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf waters and related Southern Ocean regions. Deep-Sea Research II Topical Studies in Oceanography, 51, 1921–2344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenouvrier, S., Barbraud, C. & Weimerskirch, H. 2005. Long-term contrasted responses to climate of two Antarctic seabird species. Ecology, 86, 2889–2903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kawaguchi, S., Kasamatsu, N., Watanabe, S. & Nicol, S. 2005. Sea ice changes inferred from methanesulphonic acid (MSA) variation in East Antarctic ice cores: are krill responsible? Antarctic Science, 17, 211–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laws, R.M. 1977. The significance of vertebrates in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. In Llano, G., ed. Adaptations within Antarctic ecosystems. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 411–418.Google Scholar
Leaper, R., Cooke, J., Trathan, P.N., Reid, K., Rowntree, V. & Payne, R. 2006 Global climate drives southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) population dynamics. Biology Letters, doi:10.1098/rsbl.2005.0431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loeb, V., Siegel, V., Holm-Hansen, O., Hewitt, R., Fraser, W., Trivelpiece, W. & Trivelpiece, S. 1997. Effects of sea-ice extent and krill or salp dominance on the Antarctic food web. Nature, 387, 897–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massom, R.A., Stammerjohn, S.E., Smith, R.C., Pook, M.J., Iannuzzi, R.A., Adams, N., Martinson, D.G., Vernet, M., Fraser, W.R., Quetin, L.B., Ross, R.M., Massom, Y. & Krouse, H.R. 2006. Extreme anomalous atmospheric circulation in the West Antarctic Peninsula region in Austral Spring and Summer 2001/02, and its profound impact on sea ice and biota. Journal of Climate, 19, 3544–3571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mori, M. & Butterworth, D.G. 2006. A first step towards modeling the krill-predator dynamics of the Antarctic ecosystem. CCAMLR Science, 13, 217–277.Google Scholar
Murphy, E.J. 1995 Spatial structure of the Southern Ocean ecosystem - predator-prey linkages in Southern Ocean food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology, 64, 333–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, E., Hofmann, E. & Johnston, N. 2006. Integrated analyses of circumpolar climate interactions and ecosystem dynamics in the Southern ocean (ICED) Science Planning workshop, Cambridge, UK, 24–26 May 2005. GLOBEC International Newsletter, 26(1), 42–44.Google Scholar
Murphy, E., Morris, D.J., Watkins, J.L. & Priddle, J. 1988. Scales of interaction between Antarctic krill and the environment. In Sahrhage, D., ed. Antarctic Ocean and resources variability. Berlin: Springer, 120–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, E.J., Clarke, A., Symon, C. & Priddle, J. 1995. Temporal variation in Antarctic sea-ice: analysis of a long term fast-ice record from the South Orkney Islands. Deep-Sea Research I, 42, 1045–1062.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, E.J, Watkins, J.L., Trathan, P.N., Reid, K., Meredith, M., Thorpe, S., Johnston, N., Clarke, A., Tarling, G., Collins, M., Forcada, J., Shreeve, R., Atkinson, A., Korb, R., Whitehouse, M., Ward, P., Rodhouse, P.G., Enderlein, P., Hirst, A., Martin, A., Hill, S., Staniland, I., Pond, D., Briggs, D., Cunningham, N. & Fleming, A. 2007. Spatial and temporal operation of the Scotia Sea ecosystem: a review of large-scale links in a krill centred food web. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B362, 113–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicol, S. 2006. Krill, currents and sea ice; the life cycle of Euphausia superba in relation to its changing environment. Bioscience, 56, 111–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicol, S., Pauly, T., Bindoff, N.L., Wright, S., Thiele, D., Hosie, G.W., Strutton, P.G. & Woehler, E. 2000. Ocean circulation off east Antarctica affects ecosystem structure and ice extent. Nature, 406, 504–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicol, S., Worby, A.P., Strutton, P.G. & Trull, T.W. 2006. Oceanographic influences on Antarctic ecosystems: a summary of observations and insights from East Antarctica (0°–150°E). In Robinson, A., ed. The sea, vol. 14B. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1493–1534.Google Scholar
Pauly, D., Christiansen, V., Dalsgaard, J., Froeser, R.TorresJr, F. Jr, F. 1998. Fishing down marine food webs. Science, 279, 860–863.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Payne, M.R. 1977. Growth of a fur seal population. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B279, 67–80.Google Scholar
Sladen, W.J.L. 1964 The distribution of Adelie and chinstrap penguins. In Carrick, R., Holdgate, M.W. & Prevost, J., eds. Biologie antarctique. Paris: Hermann, 359–365.Google Scholar
Smetacek, V. & Nicol, S. 2005. Polar ocean ecosystems in a changing world. Nature, 437, 362–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R.C., Baker, K.S., Fraser, W.R., Hofmann, E.E., Karl, D.M., Klinck, J.M., Quetin, L.B., Prézelin, B.B., Ross, R.M., Trivelpiece, W.Z. & Vernet, M. 1995. The Palmer LTER: a long-term ecological research program at Palmer Station, Antarctica. Oceanography, 8, 77–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southwell, C.J., Kerry, K.R. & Ensor, P.H. 2005. Predicting the distribution of crabeater seals Lobodon carcinophaga off east Antarctica during the breeding season. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 299, 297–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trathan, P.N., Croxall, J.P. & Murphy, E.J. 1996. Dynamics of Antarctic penguin populations in relation to interannual variability in sea ice distribution. Polar Biology, 16, 321–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trathan, P.N., Forcada, J. & Murphy, E.J. 2007. Environmental forcing and Southern Ocean marine predator populations: effects of climate change and variability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B362, doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1953Google Scholar
Trathan, P.N., Murphy, E.J., Forcada, J., Croxall, J.P., Reid, K. & Thorpe, S.E. 2006. Physical forcing in the southwest Atlantic: ecosystem control. In Boyd, I.L., Wanless, S. & Camphuysen, C.J., eds. Top predators in marine ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 28–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tynan, C.T. 1998. Ecological importance of the Southern Boundary of the Antarctic circumpolar current. Polar Biology, 16, 321–330.Google Scholar
Vaughan, D.G., Marshall, G.J., Connolley, W.M., Parkinson, C., Mulvaney, R., Hodgson, D.A., King, J.C., Pudsey, C.J. & Turner, J. 2003. Recent rapid regional climate warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. Climatic Change, 60, 243–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watkins, J.L., Hewitt, R., Naganobu, M. & Sushin, V. 2004. The CCAMLR 2000 Survey: a multinational, multi-ship biological oceanography survey of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Deep-Sea Research II, 51, 1205–1213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar