Abstract
Climate change has already altered the environmental conditions of the world’s oceans. Here we report declines in gastropod abundances and recruitment of mussels (Mytilus edulis) and barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides) over the last two decades that are correlated with changes in temperature and ocean conditions. Mussel recruitment is declining by 15.7% per year, barnacle recruitment by 5.0% per year, and abundances of three common gastropods are declining by an average of 3.1% per year (Testudinalia testudinalis, Littorina littorea, and Nucella lapillus). The declines in mussels and the common periwinkle (L. littorea) are correlated with warming sea temperatures and the declines in T. testudinalis and N. lapillus are correlated with aragonite saturation state, which affects rates of shell calcification. These species are common on shores throughout the North Atlantic and their loss is likely to lead to simplification of an important food web on rocky shores.
Highlights
Climate change has already altered the environmental conditions of the world’s oceans
The Gulf of Maine has recently warmed faster than 99.9% of the global oceans[11] and has a relatively low pH and aragonite saturation state (ΩAR), rendering the Gulf of Maine poorly buffered against ocean acidification[12]
Our observations come from a larger long-term experiment for which we have been sampling the abundances of gastropods and recruitment by barnacles and mussels since 1997
Summary
Climate change has already altered the environmental conditions of the world’s oceans. The declines in mussels and the common periwinkle (L. littorea) are correlated with warming sea temperatures and the declines in T. testudinalis and N. lapillus are correlated with aragonite saturation state, which affects rates of shell calcification These species are common on shores throughout the North Atlantic and their loss is likely to lead to simplification of an important food web on rocky shores. We provide evidence for decadal declines of five common benthic species (the tortoiseshell limpet, Testudinalia testudinalis, the common periwinkle, Littorina littorea, the dogwhelk, Nucella lapillus, the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides) on rocky shores of the NW Atlantic Ocean, and link these declines to changes in oceanic conditions in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change. Continued losses of mid-trophic level consumers will likely lead to simplification of this iconic food web with profound implications for secondary production and stability of rocky shore ecosystems throughout the North Atlantic[6,19,20]
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