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Paradigm misplaced? Antarctic marine ecosystems are affected by climate change as well as biological processes and harvesting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2007

Stephen Nicol ,
John Croxall ,
Phil Trathan ,
Nick Gales  and
Eugene Murphy
Stephen Nicol*
Affiliation:
Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia
John Croxall
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Phil Trathan
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Nick Gales
Affiliation:
Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia
Eugene Murphy
Affiliation:
BioSciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

A recent review by Ainley et al. has suggested that recent investigations of the ecological structure and processes of the Southern Ocean have “almost exclusively taken a bottom-up, forcing-by-physical-processes approach relating individual species' population trends to climate change”. We examine this suggestion and conclude that, in fact, there has been considerable research effort into ecosystem interactions over the last 25 years, particularly through research associated with management of the living resources of the Southern Ocean. Future Southern Ocean research will make progress only when integrated studies are planned around well structured hypotheses that incorporate both the physical and biological drivers of ecosystem processes.

Keywords

climate changeecosystem processesSouthern Ocean
Type
Opinion
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 291 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2007

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