Advances in Understanding Marine Heatwaves and Their Impacts

Marine heatwaves are prolonged periods of anomalously warm seawater temperatures – extreme events – that can have notable impacts on marine ecosystems. They occur regionally throughout the global oceans, including marginal seas, continental shelves, and the open ocean. These anomalously warm events arise from local and/or remotely forced mechanisms related to atmosphere, climate, and/or ocean variability. Marine heatwaves have been associated with widespread mortality of species in marine ecosystems, major shifts in ecosystem structure, and fisheries closures and quota reductions. In a warming ocean, these events are becoming more relevant as thermal stress approaches or exceeds ecosystem tolerance levels. Long-term, sustained observing systems and in situ and remotely sensed temperature data are important for detecting, monitoring, and understanding these events. Hydrodynamic models have improved our ability to diagnose mechanisms responsible for the extreme ocean warming events.

This Research Topic brings together studies on marine heatwaves from across the range of marine science disciplines, covering physical processes through ecological impacts. Relevant themes include characterization of historical events from ocean observations and/or models, progress in understanding the underlying dynamics in the generation and decay of marine heatwaves, the impacts of climate variability and anthropogenic climate change on marine heatwave properties, improvements in monitoring systems for marine heatwaves, and documentation of impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries, and aquaculture. Spatial scope is not limited, and studies cover small-scale coastal zones, regional basin-scale domains – including tropical, mid-latitude and polar studies – up to fully global analyses.

A range of article types will be considered, including: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Data Reports, Brief Research Reports, as well as Perspective and Opinion pieces.