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Smith, R.C., D. Ainley, K. Baker, E. Domack, S. Emslie, B. Fraser, J. Kennett, L. Leventer, E. Mosley-Thompson, S. Stammerjohn, and M. Vernet, 1999: Marine ecosystem sensitivity to climate change. Bioscience, 49, 393-404.
Mounting evidence suggests that the Earth is experiencing a period of rapid climate change. Never before has it been so important to understand how environmental change influences the Earth's biota and to distinguish anthropogenic change from natural variability. Long-term studies in the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region provide the opportunity to observe how changes in the physical environment are related to changes in the marine ecosystem.
In this article, we summarize the available data on climate variability and trends in the WAP region and discuss these data in the context of long-term climate variability during the last 8000 years of the Holocene. We then compare the available data on ecosystem change in the WAP region to the data on climate variability. Both historical and paleoenvironmental records indicate a climate gradient along the WAP that includes a dry, cold continental regime to the south and a wet, warm maritime regime to the north. The position of this climate gradient has shifted over time in response to the dominant climate regime, and it makes the WAP region a highly sensitive location for assessing ecological responses to climate variability. Our findings show that this century's rapid climate warming has occurred concurrently with a shift in the population size and distribution of penguin species.with a shift in the population size and distribution of penguin species.
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