Premium
North Atlantic Oscillation signatures in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems—a meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Blenckner Thorsten,
Hillebrand Helmut
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2486.2002.00469.x
Subject(s) - north atlantic oscillation , ecosystem , trophic level , environmental science , biomass (ecology) , terrestrial ecosystem , ecology , northern hemisphere , climate change , aquatic ecosystem , latitude , marine ecosystem , oceanography , climatology , biology , geography , geology , geodesy
Climate variations over the Northern Hemisphere are to a substantial proportion associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Recently, many studies revealed the impacts of the NAO on the dynamics of organisms in different ecosystems but the results in the single studies were inconsistent. Here, we used meta‐analysis techniques for a quantitative synthesis of results. We tested the influence of the NAO on the timing of life history events, on biomass of organisms, and on biomass of different trophic levels. We found a clear NAO signature in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. The response of life history events to the NAO was similar in all environments but less pronounced at higher latitudes. The magnitude of the biomass response was significantly related to the NAO, either positively in aquatic or negatively in terrestrial ecosystems. The response depended on longitude, the effect being less pronounced in Eastern Europe. The results stressed that a meta‐analysis is a valuable tool in the field of climate‐driven ecosystem responses and can identify more general ecological responses than single studies. We recommend the inclusion of nonsignificant results in order to archive an objective view of the strength of NAO and climate impacts in general.