A groundbreaking study reveals the devastating impact of climate change on the resilience of the red gorgonian, a key species in the Mediterranean ecosystem. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, this iconic species faces a worrying risk of extinction, with dire consequences for the entire marine environment.
The Unraveling of a Vital Marine Community
Before this study, little was known about the physiology of the red gorgonian, a building block in Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages (accounting for 10% of the species diversity on a regional scale) due to its mostly nocturnal behavior and indistinct mechanisms of vulnerability. But this exclusive ecosystem is facing growing threats from climate change-induced marine heatwaves reducing the health of the gorgonian.
A study by University of Barcelona researchers carried out over two decades —from 1999 to 2022has monitored this population in the long term to understand what consequences these extreme weather events have on its resistance and recovery capacity after disturbances. The outcome offers dim prospects for the future of this iconic species and the ecosystems it underpins.
These populations that have been hit with marine heatwaves in the past are much less resilient and do not recover as quickly,” Schmidt said. This worrying result indicates that the frequency and severity of these events, induced by climate change, will further push the trophic extinction of shallow water gorgonians progressing towards an irreversible outcome for Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages.
Unraveling the Mysteries of Coral Resilience
This contrasts with the prevailing ecological memory hypothesis which proposes that resistance of coral species will decrease following a disturbance if it has survived previous heatwaves. The researchers concluded that in the Mediterranean, the resilience of the red gorgonian to additional disturbances was lower once it had been hit by marine heatwaves.
This…..difference in findings with the Great Barrier Reef underscores the need to take into account the physiological and demographic idiosyncrasies of different coral species. Although the results suggested that the ecological memory hypothesis holds for some coral species in tropical waters, researchers say their findings on the red gorgonian might not apply to other corals.
The fact remains, however, that the research offers important answers to studying long-lived and slow-growing species such as the red gorgonian be at further severe risk from climate change. With marine heatwaves becoming more frequent and more severe, this study warns that the resilience of these foundational species is being worn away, with potentially catastrophic knock-on effects throughout the whole ecosystem.
Conclusion
The results of the study illustrate a clear case settled by attributing the alarming impact of climate change on Mediterranean marine ecosystems on an ecologically fragile species. Amplifying impacts to entire regions will be the inevitable consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, given this species’ iconic status and increasing risk of extinction. To benefit the red gorgonian and other threatened species in the Mediterranean, Pressley calls for targeted conservation strategies on a large scale that seriously attack climate change.
