The speeding up of marine ecosystems

Abstract

Four drivers of global change are acting in concert to speed up the ecology of our coastal and open ocean ecosystems. Ocean warming, nutrient pollution, disturbance, and species additions increase biological and ecological rates, favoring weedy communities and causing pervasive human impacts. Ocean warming via greenhouse gas emissions is accelerating metabolic processes, with effects scaling up to populations and ecosystems. Likewise, supercharging primary production via increased resources (e.g., nutrients and light) is leading to faster, weedier communities in estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Disturbances like ocean heat waves are becoming more frequent, resetting succession, and creating permanently young assemblages, while species additions are transporting the quick-growing and the fecund. The speeding up of marine ecosystems will necessitate changes in the ways we do science, attempt conservation, and use ecosystem services.