Vertical climate velocity adds a critical dimension to species shifts

Laura K. Gruenburg (), Janet Nye, Kamazima Lwiza and Lesley Thorne
Additional contact information
Laura K. Gruenburg: Stony Brook University
Janet Nye: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Kamazima Lwiza: Stony Brook University
Lesley Thorne: Stony Brook University

Nature Climate Change, 2025, vol. 15, issue 6, 656-664

Abstract: Abstract Climate responses of marine organisms differ from those on land as marine species have the flexibility to move vertically. While horizontal climate velocity has been used to predict poleward range shifts, many species are not moving as expected. Incorporating shifts in depth, which have received less attention, may better explain climate responses of marine organisms. Here we assess vertical and horizontal climate velocities across 63 global large marine ecosystems and find that 77% of vertical climate velocities are negative, reflecting isotherm deepening. Vertical climate velocity is 10,000 times smaller than horizontal climate velocity, allowing organisms to maintain constant temperatures by shifting metres in depth rather than kilometres horizontally. Within three key large marine ecosystems, we find more species shifts are explained by vertical than by horizontal climate velocity. Together, our findings have implications for understanding species adaptation to change and for future accessibility of marine resources.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02300-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcli:v:15:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1038_s41558-025-02300-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nclimate/

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02300-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Climate Change is currently edited by Bronwyn Wake

More articles in Nature Climate Change from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().