The spatial structure of Antarctic biodiversity
Peter Convey,Peter Convey,Steven L. Chown,Andrew Clarke,David K. A. Barnes,Stef Bokhorst,Vonda J. Cummings,Hugh W. Ducklow,Francesco Frati,T. G. Allan Green,Shulamit Gordon,Huw J. Griffiths,Clive Howard-Williams,Ad H L Huiskes,Johanna Laybourn-Parry,W. Berry Lyons,Andrew McMinn,Simon A. Morley,Lloyd S. Peck,Antonio Quesada,Sharon A. Robinson,Stefano Schiaparelli,Diana H. Wall +22 more
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In this paper, the authors synthesized current knowledge on environmental variability across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine Antarctic biomes and related this to the observed biotic patterns, showing that the most important physical driver of Antarctic terrestrial communities is the availability of liquid water, itself driven by solar irradiance intensity.Abstract:
Patterns of environmental spatial structure lie at the heart of the most fundamental and familiar patterns of diversity on Earth. Antarctica contains some of the strongest environmental gradients on the planet and therefore provides an ideal study ground to test hypotheses on the relevance of environmental variability for biodiversity. To answer the pivotal question, “How does spatial variation in physical and biological environmental properties across the Antarctic drive biodiversity?” we have synthesized current knowledge on environmental variability across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine Antarctic biomes and related this to the observed biotic patterns. The most important physical driver of Antarctic terrestrial communities is the availability of liquid water, itself driven by solar irradiance intensity. Patterns of biota distribution are further strongly influenced by the historical development of any given location or region, and by geographical barriers. In freshwater ecosystems, free water is also crucial, with further important influences from salinity, nutrient availability, oxygenation, and characteristics of ice cover and extent. In the marine biome there does not appear to be one major driving force, with the exception of the oceanographic boundary of the Polar Front. At smaller spatial scales, ice cover, ice scour, and salinity gradients are clearly important determinants of diversity at habitat and community level. Stochastic and extreme events remain an important driving force in all environments, particularly in the context of local extinction and colonization or recolonization, as well as that of temporal environmental variability. Our synthesis demonstrates that the Antarctic continent and surrounding oceans provide an ideal study ground to develop new biogeographical models, including life history and physiological traits, and to address questions regarding biological responses to environmental variability and change.read more
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Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment: an Update.
John Turner,Nicholas E. Barrand,Thomas J. Bracegirdle,Peter Convey,Dominic A. Hodgson,Martin J. Jarvis,Adrian Jenkins,Gareth J. Marshall,Michael P. Meredith,Howard K. Roscoe,Jon Shanklin,John Anthony French,Hugues Goosse,Mauro Guglielmin,Julian Gutt,Stan Jacobs,Marlon C. Kennicutt Ii,Valérie Masson-Delmotte,Paul Andrew Mayewski,Francisco Navarro,Sharon A. Robinson,Ted Scambos,Michael Sparrow,Colin Summerhayes,Kevin Speer,A. Klepikov +25 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an update of the "key points" from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change drives expansion of Antarctic ice-free habitat
Jasmine R. Lee,Jasmine R. Lee,Ben Raymond,Ben Raymond,Ben Raymond,Thomas J. Bracegirdle,Iadine Chadès,Iadine Chadès,Richard A. Fuller,Justine D. Shaw,Aleks Terauds +10 more
TL;DR: This work quantifies the impact of twenty-first century climate change on ice-free areas under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate forcing scenarios using temperature-index melt modelling and hypothesizes that they could eventually lead to increasing regional-scale biotic homogenization, the extinction of less-competitive species and the spread of invasive species.
Journal ArticleDOI
The changing form of Antarctic biodiversity
Steven L. Chown,Andrew Clarke,Ceridwen I. Fraser,S. Craig Cary,Katherine L. Moon,Katherine L. Moon,Melodie A. McGeoch +6 more
TL;DR: Life in the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean is surprisingly rich, and as much at risk from environmental change as it is elsewhere.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biology of the Southern Ocean
TL;DR: Biology of the Antarctic Seas II as mentioned in this paper, edited by George A. Llano, was published by the American Geophysical Union of the National Academy of Sciences (AGEUS).
Journal ArticleDOI
Antarctic environmental change and biological responses.
Peter Convey,Lloyd S. Peck +1 more
TL;DR: This work has suggested that the establishment of non-native organisms in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems may present an even greater threat than climate change itself.
References
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TL;DR: 13 models of the ocean–carbon cycle are used to assess calcium carbonate saturation under the IS92a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario for future emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and indicate that conditions detrimental to high-latitude ecosystems could develop within decades, not centuries as suggested previously.
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Global patterns in biodiversity
TL;DR: This work states that the distribution of biodiversity across the Earth can be described in terms of a relatively small number of broad-scale spatial patterns, and theory is developing rapidly, improving in its internal consistency, and more readily subjected to empirical challenge.
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TL;DR: Overall, this review shows that current estimates of future biodiversity are very variable, depending on the method, taxonomic group, biodiversity loss metrics, spatial scales and time periods considered.
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Global Iron Connections Between Desert Dust, Ocean Biogeochemistry, and Climate
Tim Jickells,Zhisheng An,Katrine Krogh Andersen,Alex R. Baker,Gilles Bergametti,Nick Brooks,Junji Cao,Philip W. Boyd,Robert A. Duce,Keith A. Hunter,Hodaka Kawahata,Nilgun Kubilay,Julie LaRoche,Peter S. Liss,Natalie M. Mahowald,Joseph M. Prospero,Andy Ridgwell,Ina Tegen,Rodrigo Torres +18 more
TL;DR: The iron cycle, in which iron-containing soil dust is transported from land through the atmosphere to the oceans, affecting ocean biogeochemistry and hence having feedback effects on climate and dust production, is reviewed.
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