Marine heatwaves (MHWs)—discrete but prolonged periods of anomalously warm ocean temperatures—can drastically alter ocean ecosystems, with profound ecological and socioeconomic impacts1–8. Considerable effort has been directed at understanding the patterns, drivers and trends of MHWs globally9–11. Typically, MHWs are characterized on the basis of their intensity and persistence at a given location—an approach that is particularly relevant for corals and other sessile organisms that must endure increased temperatures. However, many ecologically and commercially important marine species respond to environmental disruptions by relocating to favourable habitats, and dramatic range shifts of mobile marine species are among the conspicuous impacts of MHWs1,4,12,13. Whereas spatial temperature shifts have been studied extensively in the context of long-term warming trends14–18, they are unaccounted for in existing global MHW analyses. Here we introduce thermal displacement as a metric that characterizes MHWs by the spatial shifts of surface temperature contours, instead of by local temperature anomalies, and use an observation-based global sea surface temperature dataset to calculate thermal displacements for all MHWs from 1982 to 2019. We show that thermal displacements during MHWs vary from tens to thousands of kilometres across the world’s oceans and do not correlate spatially with MHW intensity. Furthermore, short-term thermal displacements during MHWs are of comparable magnitude to century-scale shifts inferred from warming trends18, although their global spatial patterns are very different. These results expand our understanding of MHWs and their potential impacts on marine species, revealing which regions are most susceptible to thermal displacement, and how such shifts may change under projected ocean warming. The findings also highlight the need for marine resource management to account for MHW-driven spatial shifts, which are of comparable scale to those associated with long-term climate change and are already happening. Ocean heatwaves displace surface isotherms by tens to thousands of kilometres—comparable to shifts associated with long-term warming trends—potentially driving rapid redistributions of marine species.

中文翻译：

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海洋热浪引起的热位移

海洋热浪 (MHW)——离散但长时间异常温暖的海洋温度——可以彻底改变海洋生态系统，对生态和社会经济产生深远的影响 1-8。为了解全球 MHW 的模式、驱动因素和趋势做出了相当大的努力9-11。通常，MHW 的特征在于它们在给定位置的强度和持久性——这种方法与珊瑚和其他必须承受温度升高的固着生物特别相关。然而，许多生态和商业上重要的海洋物种通过迁移到有利的栖息地来应对环境破坏，移动海洋物种的剧烈范围变化是 MHWs1,4,12,13 的显着影响之一。尽管在长期变暖趋势的背景下对空间温度变化进行了广泛的研究 14-18，但在现有的全球 MHW 分析中却没有考虑到它们。在这里，我们引入热位移作为一种度量，通过表面温度等高线的空间偏移而不是局部温度异常来表征 MHW，并使用基于观测的全球海面温度数据集来计算 1982 年至 2019 年所有 MHW 的热位移。我们表明，MHW 期间的热位移在世界海洋中从数万公里到数千公里不等，并且在空间上与 MHW 强度无关。此外，MHW 期间的短期热位移与从变暖趋势中推断出的世纪尺度变化具有可比性，尽管它们的全球空间格局非常不同。这些结果扩展了我们对 MHW 及其对海洋物种的潜在影响的理解，揭示了哪些区域最容易受到热位移的影响，以及在预计的海洋变暖下这种变化可能会如何变化。研究结果还强调了海洋资源管理需要考虑 MHW 驱动的空间变化，这些变化与长期气候变化相关的空间变化具有可比性，并且已经发生。海洋热浪将地表等温线移动了数万至数千公里——与长期变暖趋势相关的变化相当——可能会推动海洋物种的快速重新分布。研究结果还强调了海洋资源管理需要考虑 MHW 驱动的空间变化，这些变化与长期气候变化相关的空间变化具有可比性，并且已经发生。海洋热浪将地表等温线移动了数万至数千公里——与长期变暖趋势相关的变化相当——可能会推动海洋物种的快速重新分布。研究结果还强调了海洋资源管理需要考虑 MHW 驱动的空间变化，这些变化与长期气候变化相关的空间变化具有可比性，并且已经发生。海洋热浪将地表等温线移动了数万至数千公里——与长期变暖趋势相关的变化相当——可能会推动海洋物种的快速重新分布。