Marine Science Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay3188
Abstract
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.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Science Advances, v. 6, issue 20, art. eaay3188
Scholar Commons Citation
Howard, Evan M.; Penn, Justin L.; Frenzel, Hartmut; Seibel, Brad A.; Bianchi, Daniele; Renault, Lionel; Kessouri, Fayçal; Sutula, Martha A.; McWilliams, James C.; and Deutsch, Curtis, "Climate-driven Aerobic Habitat Loss in the California Current System" (2020). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 2324.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2324
Supplementary Material
