Resource description:
This chapter reviews the impacts of climate change on coastal biological communities across multiple levels of organization. At the molecular and cellular level, stressors like warming and acidification disrupt physiological processes, alter gene expression, and induce oxidative stress in marine organisms. Climate change affects growth, development, behavior, and reproduction of many species and documented population-level effects include shifts in species distributions, with many moving poleward or to deeper waters. At the community level, climate change alters species interactions, phenology, and food web dynamics, being the functioning of marine ecosystems affected, with changes in productivity, habitat structure, and connectivity between populations reported in several studies. Responses vary based on species traits, local adaptation, and life stage. It has been emphasized the complexity of multi-stressor effects and the potential for regime shifts in some marine ecosystems. Overall, this review synthesizes current knowledge on how climate change is reshaping coastal biological communities while identifying key knowledge gaps and research needs.
Author/Contact:
Cabral HN, Madeira D, Diniz MS, Madeira C, Maulvault AL, Arevalo E, Lucey NM, Dupont S