• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Marine ecosystem shifts with deglacial sea-ice loss inferred from ancient DNA shotgun sequencing
  • Contributor: Zimmermann, Heike H. [Author]; Stoof-Leichsenring, Kathleen R. [Author]; Dinkel, Viktor [Author]; Harms, Lars [Author]; Schulte, Luise [Author]; Hütt, Marc-Thorsten [Author]; Nürnberg, Dirk [Author]; Tiedemann, Ralf [Author]; Herzschuh, Ulrike [Author]
  • Published: Nature Research, 2023-03-24
  • Language: English
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36845-x
  • Origination:
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  • Description: Sea ice is a key factor for the functioning and services provided by polar marine ecosystems. However, ecosystem responses to sea-ice loss are largely unknown because time-series data are lacking. Here, we use shotgun metagenomics of marine sedimentary ancient DNA off Kamchatka (Western Bering Sea) covering the last ~20,000 years. We traced shifts from a sea ice-adapted late-glacial ecosystem, characterized by diatoms, copepods, and codfish to an ice-free Holocene characterized by cyanobacteria, salmon, and herring. By providing information about marine ecosystem dynamics across a broad taxonomic spectrum, our data show that ancient DNA will be an important new tool in identifying long-term ecosystem responses to climate transitions for improvements of ocean and cryosphere risk assessments. We conclude that continuing sea-ice decline on the northern Bering Sea shelf might impact on carbon export and disrupt benthic food supply and could allow for a northward expansion of salmon and Pacific herring.
  • Access State: Open Access