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Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem

The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the three places on Earth that registered the most intense warming in the last 50 years, almost five times the global mean. This warming has strongly affected the cryosphere, causing the largest ice-shelf collapses ever observed and the retreat of 87% of glacie...

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Autores principales: Sahade, Ricardo, Lagger, Cristian, Torre, Luciana, Momo, Fernando, Monien, Patrick, Schloss, Irene, Barnes, David K. A., Servetto, Natalia, Tarantelli, Soledad, Tatián, Marcos, Zamboni, Nadia, Abele, Doris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26702429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500050
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author Sahade, Ricardo
Lagger, Cristian
Torre, Luciana
Momo, Fernando
Monien, Patrick
Schloss, Irene
Barnes, David K. A.
Servetto, Natalia
Tarantelli, Soledad
Tatián, Marcos
Zamboni, Nadia
Abele, Doris
author_facet Sahade, Ricardo
Lagger, Cristian
Torre, Luciana
Momo, Fernando
Monien, Patrick
Schloss, Irene
Barnes, David K. A.
Servetto, Natalia
Tarantelli, Soledad
Tatián, Marcos
Zamboni, Nadia
Abele, Doris
author_sort Sahade, Ricardo
collection PubMed
description The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the three places on Earth that registered the most intense warming in the last 50 years, almost five times the global mean. This warming has strongly affected the cryosphere, causing the largest ice-shelf collapses ever observed and the retreat of 87% of glaciers. Ecosystem responses, although increasingly predicted, have been mainly reported for pelagic systems. However, and despite most Antarctic species being benthic, responses in the Antarctic benthos have been detected in only a few species, and major effects at assemblage level are unknown. This is probably due to the scarcity of baselines against which to assess change. We performed repeat surveys of coastal benthos in 1994, 1998, and 2010, analyzing community structure and environmental variables at King George Island, Antarctica. We report a marked shift in an Antarctic benthic community that can be linked to ongoing climate change. However, rather than temperature as the primary factor, we highlight the resulting increased sediment runoff, triggered by glacier retreat, as the potential causal factor. The sudden shift from a “filter feeders–ascidian domination” to a “mixed assemblage” suggests that thresholds (for example, of tolerable sedimentation) and alternative equilibrium states, depending on the reversibility of the changes, could be possible traits of this ecosystem. Sedimentation processes will be increasing under the current scenario of glacier retreat, and attention needs to be paid to its effects along the AP.
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spelling pubmed-46813272015-12-23 Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem Sahade, Ricardo Lagger, Cristian Torre, Luciana Momo, Fernando Monien, Patrick Schloss, Irene Barnes, David K. A. Servetto, Natalia Tarantelli, Soledad Tatián, Marcos Zamboni, Nadia Abele, Doris Sci Adv Research Articles The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the three places on Earth that registered the most intense warming in the last 50 years, almost five times the global mean. This warming has strongly affected the cryosphere, causing the largest ice-shelf collapses ever observed and the retreat of 87% of glaciers. Ecosystem responses, although increasingly predicted, have been mainly reported for pelagic systems. However, and despite most Antarctic species being benthic, responses in the Antarctic benthos have been detected in only a few species, and major effects at assemblage level are unknown. This is probably due to the scarcity of baselines against which to assess change. We performed repeat surveys of coastal benthos in 1994, 1998, and 2010, analyzing community structure and environmental variables at King George Island, Antarctica. We report a marked shift in an Antarctic benthic community that can be linked to ongoing climate change. However, rather than temperature as the primary factor, we highlight the resulting increased sediment runoff, triggered by glacier retreat, as the potential causal factor. The sudden shift from a “filter feeders–ascidian domination” to a “mixed assemblage” suggests that thresholds (for example, of tolerable sedimentation) and alternative equilibrium states, depending on the reversibility of the changes, could be possible traits of this ecosystem. Sedimentation processes will be increasing under the current scenario of glacier retreat, and attention needs to be paid to its effects along the AP. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2015-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4681327/ /pubmed/26702429 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500050 Text en Copyright © 2015, The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Sahade, Ricardo
Lagger, Cristian
Torre, Luciana
Momo, Fernando
Monien, Patrick
Schloss, Irene
Barnes, David K. A.
Servetto, Natalia
Tarantelli, Soledad
Tatián, Marcos
Zamboni, Nadia
Abele, Doris
Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title_full Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title_fullStr Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title_short Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
title_sort climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an antarctic benthic ecosystem
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26702429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500050
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