title: Differential responses of marine communities to natural and anthropogenic changes.
abstract: Responses of ecosystems to environmental changes vary greatly across habitats, organisms and observational scales. The Quaternary fossil record of the Po Basin demonstrates that marine communities of the northern Adriatic re-emerged unchanged following the most recent glaciation, which lasted approximately 100,000 years. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene interglacial ecosystems were both dominated by the same species, species turnover rates approximated predictions of resampling models of a homogeneous system, and comparable bathymetric gradients in species composition, sample-level diversity, dominance and specimen abundance were observed in both time intervals. The interglacial Adriatic ecosystems appear to have been impervious to natural climate change either owing to their persistence during those long-term perturbations or their resilient recovery during interglacial phases of climate oscillations. By contrast, present-day communities of the northern Adriatic differ notably from their Holocene counterparts. The recent ecosystem shift stands in contrast to the long-term endurance of interglacial communities in face of climate-driven environmental changes.
authors: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA kowalewski@ufl.edu.
authors: Michał
authors: M
authors: Kowalewski
authors: Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
authors: Jacalyn M
authors: JM
authors: Wittmer
authors: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
authors: Troy A
authors: TA
authors: Dexter
authors: Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy.
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Amorosi
authors: Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy.
authors: Daniele
authors: D
authors: Scarponi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D008974:Mollusca / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Quaternary; climate change; marine ecosystems; molluscs