Climate change has ecosystem-wide cascading effects. Little is known, however, about the resilience of Arctic marine ecosystems to environmental change. Here we quantify and compare large-scale patterns in rocky intertidal biomass, coverage and zonation in six regions along a north-south gradient of temperature and ice conditions in West Greenland (60–72°N). We related the level and variation in assemblage composition, biomass and coverage to latitudinal-scale environmental drivers. Across all latitudes, the intertidal assemblage was dominated by a core of stress-tolerant foundation species that constituted > 95% of the biomass. Hence, canopy-forming macroalgae, represented by Fucus distichus subsp. evanescens and F. vesiculosus and, up to 69°N, also Ascophyllum nodosum, together with Semibalanus balanoides, occupied > 70% of the vertical tidal range in all regions. Thus, a similar functional assemblage composition occurred across regions, and no latitudinal depression was observed. The most conspicuous difference in species composition from south to north was that three common species (the macroalgae Ascophyllum nodosum, the amphipod Gammarus setosus and the gastropod Littorina obtusata) disappeared from the mid-intertidal, although at different latitudes. There were no significant relationships between assemblage metrics and air temperature or sea ice coverage as obtained from weather stations and satellites, respectively. Although the mean biomass decreased > 50% from south to north, local biomass in excess of 10 000 g ww m⁻² was found even at the northernmost site, demonstrating the patchiness of this habitat and the effect of small-scale variation in environmental characteristics. Hence, using the latitudinal gradient in a space-for-time substitution, our results suggest that while climate modification may lead to an overall increase in the intertidal biomass in north Greenland, it is unlikely to drive dramatic functional changes in ecosystem structure in the near future. Our dataset provides an important baseline for future studies to verify these predictions for Greenland's intertidal zone.

中文翻译：

---

西格陵兰潮间带生态系统结构的纬度模式表明对气候变化的适应能力

气候变化具有整个生态系统的级联效应。然而，人们对北极海洋生态系统对环境变化的适应能力知之甚少。在这里，我们量化和比较了西格陵兰岛（60-72°N）沿南北温度和冰条件梯度的六个区域的岩石潮间带生物量、覆盖率和分带的大规模模式。我们将组合组成、生物量和覆盖率的水平和变化与纬度尺度的环境驱动因素联系起来。在所有纬度上，潮间带组合以耐胁迫基础物种为核心，占生物量的 95% 以上。因此，形成冠层的大型藻类，以Fucus distichus subsp. 为代表。evanescens和F. vesiculosus以及，高达 69°N，也Ascophyllum nodosum与Semibalanus balanoides一起，在所有地区占据了 > 70% 的垂直潮差。因此，类似的功能组合组成跨区域发生，没有观察到纬度低落。从南到北的物种组成差异最显着的是三种常见的藻类（巨藻Ascophyllum nodosum、片足类Gammarus setosus和腹足动物Littorina obtusata) 从潮间带中消失，尽管在不同的纬度。分别从气象站和卫星获得的组合指标与气温或海冰覆盖率之间没有显着关系。尽管平均生物量从南到北下降了 > 50%，但当地生物量超过 10 000 g ww m ^-2甚至在最北端的地点也发现了这种生物，这表明该栖息地的斑驳性以及环境特征的小规模变化的影响。因此，在时空替代中使用纬度梯度，我们的结果表明，虽然气候变化可能导致格陵兰岛北部潮间带生物量的整体增加，但不太可能导致附近生态系统结构发生显着的功能变化。未来。我们的数据集为未来的研究提供了重要的基线，以验证对格陵兰潮间带的这些预测。