Compound climate events threaten tropical semi-enclosed marine ecosystems
Éva E. Plagányi · Laura K. Blamey · Rob Kenyon · Stephanie Brodie · Roy Aijun Deng · Denham Parker · Richard D. Pillans · Nicole E. Murphy · Margaret Miller · Amelia A. Desbiens · Sean Pascoe · André E. Punt
期刊Science
类型Article
发表2026-06-11
卷期页392(6803): 1154-1160
收录2026-10-09
被浏览…
关键词compound climate eventsocean warmingcyclonesmonsoonfreshwater influxsea level variabilityocean circulation variabilityspecies abundancetipping pointshydrological connectivity
标签—
Anthropogenic ocean warming affects ecosystem functioning but is not necessarily the primary climate driver regulating tropical seas. Tropical semi-enclosed marine ecosystems are poorly understood, geographically distinct, and influenced by compounding impacts from global warming, cyclones, monsoons, freshwater influx, and massive sea-level and circulation variability. We unify climate risk understanding of these large-scale integrated ocean-atmosphere-biological systems, showing that compound climate events expose resident species to larger, prolonged fluctuations, causing reconfigured spatial patterns and lack of sustained hydrological connectivity. We attribute changes in species’ abundance in these systems to complex and cumulative combinations of extreme temperatures, exposure, turbidity, and hydrologic connections. We describe evidence of such climate-induced physical and biological regime shifts in tropical marine ecosystems in northern Australia and identify implications for other systems.

@article{plagnyi2026,
author = {Éva E. Plagányi and Laura K. Blamey and Rob Kenyon and Stephanie Brodie and Roy Aijun Deng and Denham Parker and Richard D. Pillans and Nicole E. Murphy and Margaret Miller and Amelia A. Desbiens and Sean Pascoe and André E. Punt},
title = {Compound climate events threaten tropical semi-enclosed marine ecosystems},
journal = {Science},
year = {2026},
volume = {392},
number = {6803},
pages = {1154-1160},
doi = {10.1126/science.adv0367},
publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)},
}· END ·