Though the impacts of deoxygenation have been well-studied in temperate and deep ocean systems, relatively few studies have explored changing oxygen dynamics in the tropics. Evidence from cold water habitats illustrates how persistent and acute deoxygenation can decrease marine biodiversity, alter ecosystem dynamics, and potentially lead to ecosystem collapse. However, lessons learned from these habitats may not accurately represent how tropical habitats, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves, respond to deoxygenation. Inherent differences between temperate and tropical habitats, including warmer waters that have negative impacts on species living at the edge of their thermal threshold, indicate that responses to deoxygenation in the tropics will fundamentally differ from those in higher-latitude systems. This knowledge gap has caused a major weakness in our understanding of how deoxygenation impacts vital tropical ecosystems, including coral reefs that are arguably the most vulnerable to the impacts of anthropogenic change.
To more accurately understand and predict ecosystem trajectories in an era of rapid environmental change we must increase our knowledge of the drivers and consequences of deoxygenation in the tropics. With this Research Topic we seek to compile a suite of papers that explore deoxygenation in the context of tropical marine habitats. We welcome contributions that evaluate any aspect of marine deoxygenation in the tropics, such as in situ oxygen dynamics in isolation or concurrent with other stressors, natural patterns in oxygen variability, and persistent or episodic deoxygenation events. We also invite papers that quantify responses of organisms and ecosystems to natural and manipulated oxygen dynamics, and those that evaluate resilience and recovery post-deoxygenation.
Though the impacts of deoxygenation have been well-studied in temperate and deep ocean systems, relatively few studies have explored changing oxygen dynamics in the tropics. Evidence from cold water habitats illustrates how persistent and acute deoxygenation can decrease marine biodiversity, alter ecosystem dynamics, and potentially lead to ecosystem collapse. However, lessons learned from these habitats may not accurately represent how tropical habitats, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves, respond to deoxygenation. Inherent differences between temperate and tropical habitats, including warmer waters that have negative impacts on species living at the edge of their thermal threshold, indicate that responses to deoxygenation in the tropics will fundamentally differ from those in higher-latitude systems. This knowledge gap has caused a major weakness in our understanding of how deoxygenation impacts vital tropical ecosystems, including coral reefs that are arguably the most vulnerable to the impacts of anthropogenic change.
To more accurately understand and predict ecosystem trajectories in an era of rapid environmental change we must increase our knowledge of the drivers and consequences of deoxygenation in the tropics. With this Research Topic we seek to compile a suite of papers that explore deoxygenation in the context of tropical marine habitats. We welcome contributions that evaluate any aspect of marine deoxygenation in the tropics, such as in situ oxygen dynamics in isolation or concurrent with other stressors, natural patterns in oxygen variability, and persistent or episodic deoxygenation events. We also invite papers that quantify responses of organisms and ecosystems to natural and manipulated oxygen dynamics, and those that evaluate resilience and recovery post-deoxygenation.