Fish communities diverge in species but converge in traits over three decades of warming

Matthew McLean, David Mouillot, Martin Lindegren, Sébastien Villéger, Georg Engelhard, Juliette Murgier, Arnaud Auber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Describing the spatial and temporal dynamics of communities is essential for understanding the impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Trait-based approaches can provide better insight than species-based (i.e. taxonomic) approaches into community assembly and ecosystem functioning, but comparing species and trait dynamics may reveal important patterns for understanding community responses to environmental change. Here, we used a 33-year database of fish monitoring to compare the spatio-temporal dynamics of taxonomic and trait structure in North Sea fish communities. We found that the majority of variation in both taxonomic and trait structure was explained by a pronounced spatial gradient, with distinct communities in the southern and northern North Sea related to depth, sea surface temperature, salinity and bed shear stress. Both taxonomic and trait structure changed significantly over time; however taxonomically, communities in the south and north diverged towards different species, becoming more dissimilar over time, yet they converged towards the same traits regardless of species differences. In particular, communities shifted towards smaller, faster growing species with higher thermal preferences and pelagic water column position. Although taxonomic structure changed over time, its spatial distribution remained relatively stable, whereas in trait structure, the southern zone of the North Sea shifted northward and expanded, leading to homogenization. Our findings suggest that global environmental change, notably climate warming, will lead to convergence towards traits more adapted for novel environments regardless of species composition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3972-3984
Number of pages13
JournalGlobal Change Biology
Volume25
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 1 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by Electricité de France (RESTICLIM and ECLIPSE project), IFREMER (ECLIPSE project), Région Hauts-de-France and the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (ECLIPSE project, contract no. astre 2014-10824). ML was supported by the VKR Center for Ocean Life and a VILLUM Fonden research grant (13159).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Global and Planetary Change
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Ecology
  • General Environmental Science

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