A new study, jointly conducted by colleagues in CORU, Sea Around Us project, The University of Western Australia and CSIRO, projects that ocean warming will result in tropicalization of marine biological communities in Western Australia.
To assess the extent of the impacts of climate change on marine biota in Western Australia, a suite of computer models are applied to assess the effects of future ocean changes on marine organisms in the region. The model results showed that most of the studied organisms are expected to shift their distribution southward and to deeper waters under a “business-as-usual” greenhouse gas emission scenario. Specifically, these organisms may shift between tens and hundreds of kilometres down the west coast or tens of metres deeper in the next 50 years. As a result of such shifts, more species currently restricted to the northern tropical part of the Western Australia will more likely be found in the southern part of the coast. Many of these changes have already been witnessed in Western Australia and other parts of Australia. The projected tropicalization of marine communities is expected to result in a range of ecological and socio-economic implications.
Citation: Cheung, W.W.L., Meeuwig, J.J., Feng, M., Harvey, E., Lam, V., Langolis, T., Slawinski, D., Sun, C., Pauly, D. (2012) Climate change induced tropicalization of marine communities in Western Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 63:415-427.