Forecast of climate-induced change in macrozoobenthos in the southern North Sea in spring

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 25:179-182 (2003) - doi:10.3354/cr025179 Forecast of climate-induced change in macrozoobenthos in the southern North Sea in spring Joachim W. Dippner1,*, Ingrid Kröncke2 1Baltic Sea Research Institute Warnemünde, Seestr. 15, 18119 Rostock, Germany 2Senckenberg Institute, Department for Marine Research, Schleusenstr. 39a, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany *Email: dippner@io-warnemuende.de ABSTRACT: A multivariate regression model using observed climate data is used to forecast the climate-induced changes in macrozoobenthos in spring. This is demonstrated by a forecast over 6 yr of biomass, abundance and species number of macrozoobenthos communities in the southern North Sea. The partial linearity between climate and benthic variables, as well as the existence of a phase lag between climate variability during winter time and the response in macrozoobenthos in spring, makes the climate-induced variability in macrozoobenthos predictable. The results indicate that a major part of interannual and interdecadal variability of marine ecosystem, here demonstrated for macrozoobenthos, can be attributed to the physical forcing of winter climate. KEY WORDS: Climate variability · Macrozoobenthos · Forecast · North Sea · Multivariate statistics Full text in pdf format PreviousExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 25, No. 2. Online publication date: December 05, 2003 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2003 Inter-Research.