Marine fish traits follow fast-slow continuum across oceans

A fundamental challenge in ecology is to understand why species are found where they are and predict where they are likely to occur in the future. Trait-based approaches may provide such understanding, because it is the traits and adaptations of species that determine which environments they can inh...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Esther Beukhof, Frelat, Romain, Pécuchet, Lauréne, Maureaud, Aurore, Dencker, Tim Spaanheden, Sólmundsson, Jon, Punzón, Antonio, Primicerio, Raúl, Hidalgo, Manuel, Möllmann, Christian, Martin Lindegren
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/321624
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/321624
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Medio Marino
Centro Oceanográfico de Santander
fish
ecology
report literature
marine fish
oceans
Descripción
Sumario:A fundamental challenge in ecology is to understand why species are found where they are and predict where they are likely to occur in the future. Trait-based approaches may provide such understanding, because it is the traits and adaptations of species that determine which environments they can inhabit. It is therefore important to identify key traits that determine species distributions and investigate how these traits relate to the environment. Based on scientific bottom-trawl surveys of marine fish abundances and traits of >1,200 species, we investigate trait-environment relationships and project the trait composition of marine fish communities across the continental shelf seas of the Northern hemisphere. We show that traits related to growth, maturation and lifespan respond most strongly to the environment. This is reflected by a pronounced “fast-slow continuum” of fish life-histories, revealing that traits vary with temperature at large spatial scales, but also with depth and seasonality at more local scales. Our findings provide insight into the structure of marine fish communities and suggest that global warming will favour an expansion of fast-living species. Knowledge of the global and local drivers of trait distributions can thus be used to predict future responses of fish communities to environmental change.