Cold-water species deepen to escape warm water temperatures

Aim. Whether marine species can respond to ocean warming by changing their depth remains controversial. While some evidence suggests that species can deepen to cope with warming climates, other studies found ecologically constrained depth distributions. Our study focuses on generalizing species depth response to warming, and elucidating whether some species display larger depth change than others. This may help in understanding the future distribution of marine species and communities.

Location. The Mediterranean Sea

Time period. 1985-2017

Major taxa studied. Fish, malacostracans, and cephalopods

Methods. We compiled species depth records from bottom-trawl surveys encompassing 236 marine species across the steep climatic gradient of the Mediterranean Sea. This data, represents the largest assessment, to date, of the potential of species to modify their depth distribution in response to spatially-varying climate. Using environmental variables (e.g. sea surface temperature, b...