Data from: Differential responses of marine communities to natural and anthropogenic changes

Responses of ecosystems to environmental changes vary greatly across
habitats, organisms, and observational scales. The Quaternary fossil
record of the Po Basin demonstrates that marine communities of Northern
Adriatic reemerged unchanged following the most recent glaciation, which
lasted ~100,000 years. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene interglacial
ecosystems were both dominated by the same species, species turnover rates
approximated predictions of resampling models of a homogenous system, and
comparable bathymetric gradients in species composition, sample-level
diversity, dominance, and specimen abundance were observed in both time
intervals. The interglacial Adriatic ecosystems appear to have been
impervious to natural climate change either due to their persistence
during those long-term perturbations or their resilient recovery during
interglacial phases of climate oscillations. In contrast, present-day
communities of Northern Adriatic differ notably from their Holocene
counterparts. The recent ecosystem shift stands in contrast to the
long-term endurance of interglacial communities in face of climate-driven
environmental changes.