Marine Heatwaves and Their Effects on Europe's Marine Ecosystems

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) - periods of anomalously high sea surface temperatures - are intensifying in frequency, duration, and magnitude across European seas, driven by accelerating climate change. While the Mediterranean Sea has long been recognized as a climate change hotspot, recent observations indicate that all European seas, from the Barents Sea in the Arctic to the Black Sea in the southeast, also face significant ecological shifts from MHWs. These thermal anomalies threaten marine biodiversity in habitats ranging from seagrass meadows and macroalgal forests to coral assemblages and fish-dominated pelagic systems. Documented impacts include altered species distributions and phenology, physiological stress, mass mortality events, and shifts in ecosystem functioning, often with cascading effects. Moreover, the diverse oceanographic features and varying human pressures across European seas further influence regional vulnerabilities. Therefore, understanding the ecological impacts of MHWs across Europe is urgent to predict future scenarios and inform adaptive conservation strategies.

Preserving healthy marine ecosystems has become a central objective in European political agendas, as reflected in initiatives such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Horizon Europe Mission “Restore Our Oceans and Waters”. These efforts emphasize the need for conservation actions grounded in robust scientific knowledge. However, despite growing recognition of MHWs as a major threat to European marine ecosystems, scientific understanding of their ecological impacts remains limited. This Research Topic in Frontiers in Marine Science aims to synthesize current research on the ecological consequences of MHWs across European seas to advance our knowledge of the vulnerability and resilience of marine biodiversity in a warming ocean and support evidence-based conservation and sustainable management efforts.

We welcome original research, reviews, and perspective articles addressing MHWs and their ecological impacts across all European regional seas. Submissions should align with the interdisciplinary scope of Frontiers in Marine Science and adopt integrative approaches across biological scales, taxonomic groups, and geographic regions. Studies employing observational, experimental, and/or modelling data are encouraged. Topics may include, but are not limited to: physiological and behavioral responses; shifts in species distributions; demographic responses; mass mortality events; resilience; biodiversity effects on communities (taxonomic, functional, and/or genetic); impacts on ecosystem functioning; modeling of historical and future MHW trends; and development of predictive tools. Submitted papers are encouraged to be policy and management relevant, ideally contributing to the development of socio-economic impact assessments and innovative monitoring or management strategies. Comparative studies across basins, depths, climate regimes or interactive stressors are particularly valuable, as are studies focusing on deep areas.

Manuscripts will undergo rigorous peer review in accordance with Frontiers standards. Authors are encouraged to consult the journal's author guidelines for submission details and formatting requirements.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: climate change, global warming, marine heatwaves, ecosystems resilience, environmental impact

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.