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Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal

The Mediterranean and Red Sea, which were connected via the Suez Canal during the 19th century after eons of separation, host two distinctive ecosystems. Species invasion through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea vastly influences the ecology of the Mediterranean, but the level of reverse migration is...

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Autor principal: Biton, Eli
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7713376/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33273688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78313-2
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author Biton, Eli
author_facet Biton, Eli
author_sort Biton, Eli
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description The Mediterranean and Red Sea, which were connected via the Suez Canal during the 19th century after eons of separation, host two distinctive ecosystems. Species invasion through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea vastly influences the ecology of the Mediterranean, but the level of reverse migration is assumed to be negligible. We present the first reconstructed flow transport record through the canal during the period 1923–2016. According to this reconstruction, the flow intensity and direction through the canal are strongly influenced by seasonal and long-term sea-level changes, which could also play a role in the characteristics of species migration through it. Our record not only supports previous observations of the unidirectional invasion until the 1980s and the accelerated species migration rates to the Mediterranean ever since, but also suggest that southward migration could have become possible since the early 1980s. The southward flow was primarily enhanced by Indian Ocean cooling and the Eastern Mediterranean Transition in deep water formation during the period 1980–2000. It was then gradually reduced by accelerated sea-level rise in the northern Indian Ocean.
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spelling pubmed-77133762020-12-03 Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal Biton, Eli Sci Rep Article The Mediterranean and Red Sea, which were connected via the Suez Canal during the 19th century after eons of separation, host two distinctive ecosystems. Species invasion through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea vastly influences the ecology of the Mediterranean, but the level of reverse migration is assumed to be negligible. We present the first reconstructed flow transport record through the canal during the period 1923–2016. According to this reconstruction, the flow intensity and direction through the canal are strongly influenced by seasonal and long-term sea-level changes, which could also play a role in the characteristics of species migration through it. Our record not only supports previous observations of the unidirectional invasion until the 1980s and the accelerated species migration rates to the Mediterranean ever since, but also suggest that southward migration could have become possible since the early 1980s. The southward flow was primarily enhanced by Indian Ocean cooling and the Eastern Mediterranean Transition in deep water formation during the period 1980–2000. It was then gradually reduced by accelerated sea-level rise in the northern Indian Ocean. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7713376/ /pubmed/33273688 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78313-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Biton, Eli
Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title_full Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title_fullStr Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title_full_unstemmed Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title_short Possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the Suez Canal
title_sort possible implications of sea level changes for species migration through the suez canal
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7713376/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33273688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78313-2
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