Marine Ecosystems Are Preparing for

Climate Change
Coral reefs, kelp forests and other ocean ecosystems may be more resilient than we think
February 13, 2017
Coral reefs, kelp forests and other marine ecosystems may be tougher than we give them credit for, a new
study suggests.
While countless scientific reports have documented the ravages of climate change on oceanic life, a survey
of the researchers who wrote them provides a silver lining: An overwhelming majority noticed examples
of sea life withstanding climate change.
There are instances where sensitive ecosystems have shown remarkable resilience after climatic events.
You can think of them as 'bright spots': They demonstrate that there are conditions under which
ecosystems can persist even with major climate disturbances, said Jennifer O'Leary, a marine
conservation biologist with California Polytechnic State University and leader of the study.
The results of the survey were compiled in a report published in the journal BioScience. In all, 97
researchers were polled; 80 percent of those who had witnessed climatic disturbances also reported
noting instances of resilience. A similar survey that looked at expert-recommended papers on ecosystems
found examples of resilience in 85 percent of them.
In Western Australia, for instance, a reef lost 90 percent of its live coral after a bleaching event. But 12
years later, it had restored itself to 44 percent of its normal size. Meanwhile, after an El Nio-related
current destroyed kelp forests off California's coast, they were able to bounce back within half a decade.
Identifying examples of resilience and highlighting the reasons behind it could prove to be a valuable
blueprint for conservation experts, said O'Leary. It could provide them information on local conditions
that could bolster ecosystems and guide their strategies to protect them.
This study provides a broad scope approach to identifying places that have qualities to them that might
be resilient to large-scale disturbances, explained Charles Boch, a postdoctoral fellow with the Monterey
Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Kelp forests and coral systems provide high-relief structures where
many other organisms can live or be protected, so they provide a lot of different services, including
habitats for economically relevant organisms.
Conservationists can use the results of the survey as a template to identify factors that contribute to
resilience. While some, like hydrological conditions, are beyond human control, others can be replicated
at different marine ecosystems around the world.
For instance, maintaining and promoting connectivity among habitats and protecting pristine or
remnant populations of habitat-forming species such as coral and kelp can dramatically foster
recovery after extreme climatic events, said Giulio De Leo, with Stanford University's Hopkins Marine
Station, who also worked on the study. Reducing or removing additional causes of stress whenever
possible, such as pollution and sediment transport, is also a key factor to promote resilience in the
majority of coastal marine ecosystems.
O'Leary acknowledged that there is a danger that the positive tone of this report could be misinterpreted
to bolster arguments against climate action. However, she added that the authors have been careful in
framing their findings as one aspect of climate research.
This paper is not trying to say that climatic pressures are unimportant. In fact, it's highlighting that they
are incredibly important but there are things that help, so we have to work both on reducing the things
that are causing climate changes, plus managing ecosystems to make them as resilient as possible to these
changes when they happen, she said.
There is still a lot that we don't know about ecosystems, according to De Leo, especially since oceans and
still largely unknown and mysterious environments for scientists. Some gaps in the research include
getting a better understanding of the distribution of species and habitats, understanding how marine
populations respond to stressors and looking at how changes in climate can affect individual species and
ecological communities.
Only in recent decades, we started to develop the underwater technology and the means to investigate
our marine ecosystems, he said. While we have done already a lot of progress, the truth is that we have
just started to scratch the surface literally.