Abstract
Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have emerged as an increasingly severe disturbance to global marine ecosystems, with documented intensifications in both frequency and magnitude over the past century. Western Australia has experienced some of the most severe MHWs on record, causing widespread ecological impacts, including coral bleaching and mortality, local species extinctions, and socioeconomic impacts such as fishery closures, making the region a critical case study of climate-driven change in the marine domain. Most recently, a severe MHW during summer 2024/2025 has caused widespread disruption to marine life, reinforcing the region's vulnerability to repeated extreme events. While extensive research has documented the impacts of these events, most studies have examined individual heatwaves or specific taxonomic groups in isolation, limiting our understanding of cumulative and cascading effects across the ecosystem. Here, we combine a scoping review of published and emerging evidence with oceanographic analyses to assess the cumulative ecological impacts of MHWs across Western Australia. Using iconic MHWs as case studies, we reveal widespread ecological consequences, spanning habitat degradation, mass invertebrate mortality events, food web disruption, and spatial redistribution of fisheries' indicator species. Accordingly, we propose adaptive management strategies for future MHWs. These strategies include the relocation of vulnerable species, implementation of adaptive fisheries management frameworks, and development of rapid response monitoring programs targeting key benthic indicator groups. We emphasise that the successful implementation of such strategies hinges upon the accurate and timely prediction of future MHW events.
Keywords
adaptive management, climate adaptation, climate change, ecological impacts, extreme events, fisheries management, species redistribution
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
10-1-2026
Article Number
112016
ISSN
00063207
Volume
322
Publication Title
Biological Conservation
Publisher
Elsevier
School
Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research / School of Science
RAS ID
101971
Funding Information
This paper was generated through the Western Australian Marine Science Institution project, ‘Advancing predictions of Western Australian marine heatwaves and impacts on marine ecosystems’ funded by (WA) Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (formally Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation) and endorsed by UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030. A workshop funded by the project scoped the concept for this paper and a sub-set of workshop participants committed to data collation, synthesis and analysis, and these authors were supported by their institutions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Lester, E., Mastrantonis, S., Hickey, S. M., Lafratta, A., Benthuysen, J. A., Afrifa-Yamoah, E., Chandrapavan, A., Depczynski, M., Evans, R. D., Fairclough, D. V., Fulton, C. J., Gagnon, M. M., Jones, N. L., Pinter, S., Ross, C. L., Robbins, W. D., Richards, Z. T., Ryan, K. L., Strydom, S., . . . McMahon, K. (2026). Understanding ecosystem responses to recurrent marine heatwaves. Biological Conservation, 322, Article 112016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.112016