24.08.2013 Views

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Figure IV.C.11. Long-term<br />

changes in <strong>the</strong> spatial<br />

distribution of <strong>the</strong> calanoid<br />

copepod species assemblages<br />

around <strong>the</strong> United Kingdom.<br />

Note <strong>the</strong> northward movement of<br />

<strong>the</strong> warm-water species associated<br />

to a decrease in <strong>the</strong> mean number<br />

of cold-water species. Redrawn<br />

from Beaugr<strong>and</strong> et al. (2002).<br />

These results indicate a shift of marine pelagic ecosystems towards a warmer<br />

dynamic regime in <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>astern North Atlantic. In terrestrial ecosystems in<br />

western Europe, similar changes in spatial distribution <strong>and</strong> phenology have been<br />

detected for many species of plants (Fitter <strong>and</strong> Fitter 2002), butterflies (Parmesan et<br />

al. 1999), amphibians (Beebee 1995) <strong>and</strong> birds (Thomas <strong>and</strong> Lennon 1999), all<br />

attributed to climate warming. West of <strong>the</strong> mid-Atlantic ridge, especially in <strong>the</strong><br />

Labrador Sea, <strong>the</strong> trend was opposite <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number of both subarctic <strong>and</strong> arctic<br />

species has increased while <strong>the</strong> number of warm-water oceanic species has<br />

decreased. This result indicates a possible move of northwest Atlantic ecosystems<br />

towards a colder-biological dynamic regime. The opposite results found in <strong>the</strong><br />

100

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!