Abstract

Indicators based on broad functional characteristics, which group plankton taxa into “lifeforms”, summarize changes across a high number of taxa in a way that reflects changes in community functioning and are used to inform policy assessments. Key questions remain, however, as to what extent plankton taxa within these lifeforms share responses to environmental change. Addressing this knowledge gap can provide additional information on the influence of environmental drivers, including climate change, on plankton communities. Here, we use a multi-decadal plankton time series to examine the extent to which taxa within lifeforms share responses to sea surface temperature (SST) change. At the North Sea scale, the individual taxa responses within the dinoflagellate lifeform are skewed towards a negative response to increasing SST, consolidating previous findings that dinoflagellate abundance is decreasing with ocean warming. The individual taxa responses within the zooplankton lifeforms, however, varied, suggesting that lifeform traits are less of a factor determining response to SST for zooplankton than for phytoplankton. The lifeform level of grouping taxa, therefore, is useful for communicating change in the state and functioning of ecosystems, but finer taxonomically resolved data are essential for determining the drivers of plankton community change, including climate influences, during formal assessments.

中文翻译：

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生物分类水平变化对气候变化反应的解释对浮游生物形式生物多样性指标的影响

摘要

基于广泛功能特征的指标将浮游生物类群归类为“生命形式”，以反映社区功能变化的方式汇总了大量类群的变化，并用于为政策评估提供依据。然而，关键问题仍然是，这些生命形式中的浮游生物类群在多大程度上共享了对环境变化的反应。解决这一知识鸿沟可提供有关环境驱动因素（包括气候变化）对浮游生物群落影响的更多信息。在这里，我们使用多年代际浮游生物时间序列来检查生命形式中的分类单元共享对海表温度（SST）变化的响应的程度。在北海尺度上，在鞭毛状生物形态内的单个分类单元响应倾向于对SST增加的负面响应，巩固先前的发现，鞭毛藻的丰度随着海洋变暖而减少。然而，浮游动物生命形式中的个体分类单元反应却各不相同，这表明，浮游动物的生命形态特征比决定浮游植物对SST响应的影响要小。因此，分类群的生命形式水平对于传达生态系统的状态和功能的变化很有用，但是在正式评估期间，更精细的分类学解析数据对于确定浮游生物群落变化的驱动因素（包括气候影响）至关重要。这表明，与浮游植物相比，生命形式性状不是决定浮游动物对SST响应的因素。因此，分类群的生命形式水平对于传达生态系统的状态和功能的变化很有用，但是在正式评估期间，更精细的分类学解析数据对于确定浮游生物群落变化的驱动因素（包括气候影响）至关重要。这表明，与浮游植物相比，生命形式性状不是决定浮游动物对SST响应的因素。因此，分类群的生命形式水平对于传达生态系统的状态和功能的变化很有用，但是在正式评估期间，更精细的分类学解析数据对于确定浮游生物群落变化的驱动因素（包括气候影响）至关重要。