Warm-water decapods and the trophic amplification of climate in the North Sea.
A long-term time series of plankton and benthic records in the North Sea indicates an increase in decapods and a decline in their prey species that include bivalves and flatfish recruits. Here, we show that in the southern North Sea the proportion of decapods to bivalves doubled following a temperature-driven, abrupt ecosystem shift during the 1980s. Analysis of decapod larvae in the plankton reveals a greater presence and spatial extent of warm-water species where the increase in decapods is greatest. These changes paralleled the arrival of new species such as the warm-water swimming crab Polybius henslowii now found in the southern North Sea. We suggest that climate-induced changes among North Sea decapods have played an important role in the trophic amplification of a climate signal and in the development of the new North Sea dynamic regime.
Lindley
J A
JA
Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, Plymouth, UK.
Beaugrand
G
G
Luczak
C
C
Dewarumez
J-M
JM
Kirby
R R
RR
D000818:Animals; D049872:Bivalvia; D057231:Climate Change; D033364:Decapoda; D017753:Ecosystem; D005412:Flatfishes; D020387:Food Chain; D007814:Larva; D009659:North Sea; D010933:Plankton; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013997:Time Factors