Variable responses in marine community structure to changes in temperature

As global climate change drives regional temperature changes, community composition can change rapidly. With changing temperature within a region, the proportion of warm-water species to cold-water species within the region is expected to change accordingly. Along the continental shelf of the northeastern United States, benthic macrofauna are shifting their distributions following climate velocities, but at different rates and in different directions. We explored the rate of change in the proportion of warm-water to cold-water species and compared it to the rate of change in local temperature in different regions to investigate the rate at which warm-water species are replacing cold-water species, and whether these community changes track or lag temperature trends.