Marine invasive species and global climate change

SCHWINDT E

Ilhabela

Workshop; Evaluating the sensitivity of Central and South American benthic communities to global climate changes; 2012

USP

The global climate change and the introduction of species are among the most important threats to biodiversity. When many stressors act in synergism they may eventually have unexpected and irreversible consequences for the native communities. There are several potential changes that we can expect of global warming. For example, changing atmospheric conditions can lead to the alteration of the pattern in light penetration, and the amount of precipitation which in turns may benefit to certain group of species. Humans already inadvertently transport countless species around the globe and, although many of them presumably will fail because of inhospitable climate in the recipient region, global warming may relax this constraint. Global warming also may alter the composition of the resident biota by facilitating the poleward spreading of species characteristic of warmer temperature regimes. Warming temperatures can also affect the length of growing and reproductive seasons or alter the timing and length of feeding activity of benthic organisms. Thus, through different ways, climate change may alter species composition and dynamic and consequently species interactions offering new opportunities to invasive species. In spite of this, there is little understanding of how invasive species may interact with climate change and there are few data to evaluate the effects of climate change on this type of invasion. During the workshop I will discuss a) the links between climate change and the marine biological invasions and b) the current methodologies applied in order to establish long term monitoring areas.