Distribution of marine species (CLIM 015) - Assessment published Nov 2012

This website has limited functionality with javascript off. Please make sure javascript is enabled in your browser.

Created : Nov 09, 2012 Published : Nov 20, 2012 Last modified : Nov 20, 2012 04:12 PM

This item is open for comments. See the comments section below

Topics: Climate change ,

This is the latest published version. .

See older versions.

Sep 08, 2008 - Northward movement of marine species (CLIM 015) - Assessment published Sep 2008

Generic metadata

Topics:

Climate change (Primary topic)

Tags:

climate change | decapoda

DPSIR: Impact
Typology: Descriptive indicator (Type A – What is happening to the environment and to humans?)

Indicator codes

CLIM 015

Dynamic

Temporal coverage:

1958-2009

Geographical coverage:

[+] Show Map

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom

Contents

Switch to full indicator view

Indicator definition

Calanus ratio in the North Sea
Annual mean number of Calanus per sample

Units

Ratio [dimensionless]
Number of Calanus [dimensionless]

Key policy question: How is climate change affecting the regional distribution of marine organisms in European seas?

Key messages

Increases in regional sea temperatures have triggered a major northward expansion of warmer-water plankton in the North-east Atlantic and a northward retreat of colder-water plankton. This northerly movement is about 10 ° latitude (1 100 km) over the past 40 years, and it seems to have accelerated since 2000.
Sub-tropical species are occurring with increasing frequency in European waters, and sub-Arctic species are receding northwards.

Further changes in the distribution of marine species are expected, with projected further climate change, but quantitative projections are not available.

Calanus ratio in the North Sea

Note: Continuous Plankton Recorder data. Left: Temporal and seasonal distribution of the Calanus ratio (1958–2009). Right: Change in Calanus ratio in the North Sea between (1958 and 2009).

Data source:

CPR Dataset (SAHFOS) provided by Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS)

Downloads and more info

Key assessment

Past trends

Increases in regional sea temperatures have triggered a major northward movement of warmer-water plankton in the North-east Atlantic and a similar retreat of colder-water plankton to the north. This northerly movement is about 10 ^o latitude (1 100 km) over the past 40 years (a mean poleward movement of between 200 and 250 km per decade), and there appears to have been an acceleration since 2000 [i]. Recently, a Norwegian study showed even faster rates of northward movement between 1997 and 2010. Out of about 1 600 benthic marine species found in coastal waters of southern Norway, 565 species had expanded their distribution northwards along the coast, at rates of 500–800 km per decade [ii]. These rates are much faster than any other documented terrestrial study.

Projections

Further changes in the distribution of marine species are expected with projected further climate change, but quantitative projections are not available.

[i] Grégory Beaugrand, „Decadal changes in climate and ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas“, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 56, Nr. 8–10 (April 2009): 656–673, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.12.022.

[ii] T. Brattegard, Endringer i norsk marin bunnfauna 1997-2010 DN-utredning 8-2011 (Trondheim: Direktoratet for naturforvaltning, 2011), http://www.dirnat.no/content/500042260/Endringer-i-norsk-marin-bunnfauna-1997-2010.

Data sources

Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey
provided by BirdLife

Justification for indicator selection

Changes in the distribution of organisms are one of the key indicators of marine climate change impacts. Distribution maps from the North-east Atlantic are used as one part of this indicator to demonstrate large-scale changes at the decadal scale. The second part of this indicator describes the ratio between a warm-water species (Calanus helgolandicus) and a cold-water species (Calanus finmarchicus) in the North Sea on an annual basis. In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the introduction of warm and tropical alien species from the Red Sea has been exacerbated by observed warming, leading to a 150 % increase in the annual mean rate of species entry after 1998.

Changes in marine plankton can trigger further effects on marine and terrestrial ecosystems. For example, increases in the surface temperature of the North Sea in recent decades have triggered establishment of warm-water swimming crabs, which in turn allowed establishment of colonies of lesser black-backed gulls in Belgium and northern France, with expected follow-on impacts on terrestrial ecosystems through their fertilisation of terrestrial soils.

Scientific references:

IPCC, 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007; M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson (eds); Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Policy context and targets

Context description

In April 2009 the European Commission presented a White Paper on the framework for adaptation policies and measures to reduce the European Union's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. The White Paper stresses the need to improve the knowledge base and to mainstream adaptation into existing and new EU policies. The European Commission will be publishing an EU Adaptation Strategy in 2013. A number of Member States have already taken action, and several have prepared national adaptation plans.

The European Commission and the European Environment Agency have developed the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT, http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/) to share knowledge on observed and projected climate change and its impacts on environmental and social systems and on human health; on relevant research; on EU, national and subnational adaptation strategies and plans; and on adaptation case studies.

Targets

No targets have been specified.

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Data from the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) on Calanus abundance in the central North Sea 1958–2009 is used for the indicator. The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey is the longest running, large-scale marine biological survey in the world. The CPR is a near-surface (10 m) plankton sampler voluntarily towed each month behind merchant ships on their normal routes of passage. Methods of analysis for, 400 phyto and zooplankton taxa have remained almost unchanged since 1958.

Methodology for gap filling

Not applicable

Methodology references

Warner and Hays (1994): Sampling by the continuous plankton recorder survey Progress in Oceanography , Volume 34, Issues 2–3 , 1994, Pages 237–256

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

Not applicable

Data sets uncertainty

In general, changes related to the physical and chemical marine environment are better documented than biological changes because links between cause and effect are better understood and often time series of observations are longer. The longest available records of plankton are from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) are some 60 years long. It is a sampler that is towed behind many different merchant vessels, along fixed shipping routes. Sampling was started in the North Sea in the 1950s and today a network covering the entire north Atlantic has been established. No other plankton time series of equivalent length and geographical coverage exist for the European regional seas, although many new initiatives investigating species distributions and their changes in Europe’s seas are now emerging.

Further information on uncertainties is provided in Section 1.7 of the EEA report on Climate change, impacts, and vulnerability in Europe 2012 (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/climate-impacts-and-vulnerability-2012/)

Rationale uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

More information about this indicator

See this indicator specification for more details.

Contacts and ownership

EEA Contact Info

Trine Christiansen

Ownership

EEA Management Plan

2012 2.0.1 (note: EEA internal system)

Dates

First draft created:

Nov 09, 2012 04:29 PM

Publish date:

Nov 20, 2012 04:12 PM

Last modified:

Nov 20, 2012 04:12 PM

Permalinks

Permalink to this version: 4e2fe1743584422dbd263d62203e5212
Permalink to latest version: UUUUZQGW2O

Write to us

Call us

Sound and independent information
on the environment

Sections