Climate change cascades: Shifts in oceanography, species' ranges and subtidal marine community dynamics in eastern Tasmania

Several lines of evidence show that ocean warming off the east coast of Tasmania is the result of intensification of the East Australian Current (EAC). Increases in the strength, duration and frequency of southward incursions of warm, nutrient poor EAC water transports heat and biota to eastern Tasmania. This shift in large scale oceanography is reflected by changes in the structure of nearshore zooplankton communities and other elements of the pelagic system; by a regional decline in dthe extent of dense beds of giant kelp (Mactosystis pyrifera;by marked changes in the distribution of nearshore fishes; and by range expansions of other northern warmer water species to colonise Tasmanian coastal waters. Population-level changes in commercially important invertebrate species may also be associated with the warming trend.