Meeting Abstract
A great challenge in the Anthropocene is predicting the effects of climate change on Earth’s biota. This challenge becomes more complex when considering species with complex life cycles, which includes 80% of the Earth’s species. We utilized a meta-analytic approach to compare vulnerability to climate change across life stages of marine invertebrates. We searched ISI Web of Science for papers which examined the effects of both near-future (year 2100) and extreme warming, acidification, and hypoxia projections on the survival of multiple life stages (embryo, larva, juvenile, and adult) of marine invertebrates. We extracted data from 34 studies and calculated the difference in effect size (LRR) using both unpaired and paired analyses, given our inclusion of only studies that investigated 2+ life stages. All significant effects of climate change were negative, with warming and hypoxia affecting younger life stages more negatively than older life stages. Taxonomy and habitat also significantly affected the difference between life stages. Results of this study suggest that earlier life stages are often “weak links” in marine invertebrate life cycles and should be a focus of efforts to better predict the effects of climate change on population dynamics.
