A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes

Entrainment of growth patterns of multiple species to single climatic drivers can lower ecosystem resilience and increase the risk of species extinction during stressful climatic events. However, predictions of the effects of climate change on the productivity and dynamics of marine fishes are hampe...

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Main Authors: Ong, J., Rountrey, A., Black, B., Nguyen, H., Coulson, P., Newman, S., Wakefield, Corey, Meeuwig, J., Meekan, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Blackwell Publishing 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67140
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author Ong, J.
Rountrey, A.
Black, B.
Nguyen, H.
Coulson, P.
Newman, S.
Wakefield, Corey
Meeuwig, J.
Meekan, M.
author_facet Ong, J.
Rountrey, A.
Black, B.
Nguyen, H.
Coulson, P.
Newman, S.
Wakefield, Corey
Meeuwig, J.
Meekan, M.
author_sort Ong, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Entrainment of growth patterns of multiple species to single climatic drivers can lower ecosystem resilience and increase the risk of species extinction during stressful climatic events. However, predictions of the effects of climate change on the productivity and dynamics of marine fishes are hampered by a lack of historical data on growth patterns. We use otolith biochronologies to show that the strength of a boundary current, modulated by the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, accounted for almost half of the shared variance in annual growth patterns of five of six species of tropical and temperate marine fishes across 23° of latitude (3000 km) in Western Australia. Stronger flow during La Niña years drove increased growth of five species, whereas weaker flow during El Niño years reduced growth. Our work is the first to link the growth patterns of multiple fishes with a single oceanographic/climate phenomenon at large spatial scales and across multiple climate zones, habitat types, trophic levels and depth ranges. Extreme La Niña and El Niño events are predicted to occur more frequently in the future and these are likely to have implications for these vulnerable ecosystems, such as a limited capacity of the marine taxa to recover from stressful climatic events.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2018
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-671402018-09-28T00:41:49Z A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes Ong, J. Rountrey, A. Black, B. Nguyen, H. Coulson, P. Newman, S. Wakefield, Corey Meeuwig, J. Meekan, M. Entrainment of growth patterns of multiple species to single climatic drivers can lower ecosystem resilience and increase the risk of species extinction during stressful climatic events. However, predictions of the effects of climate change on the productivity and dynamics of marine fishes are hampered by a lack of historical data on growth patterns. We use otolith biochronologies to show that the strength of a boundary current, modulated by the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, accounted for almost half of the shared variance in annual growth patterns of five of six species of tropical and temperate marine fishes across 23° of latitude (3000 km) in Western Australia. Stronger flow during La Niña years drove increased growth of five species, whereas weaker flow during El Niño years reduced growth. Our work is the first to link the growth patterns of multiple fishes with a single oceanographic/climate phenomenon at large spatial scales and across multiple climate zones, habitat types, trophic levels and depth ranges. Extreme La Niña and El Niño events are predicted to occur more frequently in the future and these are likely to have implications for these vulnerable ecosystems, such as a limited capacity of the marine taxa to recover from stressful climatic events. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67140 10.1111/gcb.14083 Blackwell Publishing restricted
spellingShingle Ong, J.
Rountrey, A.
Black, B.
Nguyen, H.
Coulson, P.
Newman, S.
Wakefield, Corey
Meeuwig, J.
Meekan, M.
A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title_full A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title_fullStr A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title_full_unstemmed A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title_short A boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
title_sort boundary current drives synchronous growth of marine fishes across tropical and temperate latitudes
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67140