Coming soon · intertidal intelligence

Watch this space for the new MarClim portal.

A slick new window onto decades of rocky-shore climate evidence, species movements, genomes, field surveys and the living edge of a warming ocean.

Dive in Meet the shore crew

87invertebrate and macroalgal species tracked

100sites across UK Regional Seas and northern France

50+years of long-term ecological time-series context

The long view

Small animals. Huge signal.

MarClim turns the texture of rocky shores into evidence: abundance, distribution, range edges and climate response, year after year.

Research Lead Dr Nova Mieszkowska

The MarClim project is the most spatio-temporally extensive time-series for intertidal systems globally. MarClim surveys track the abundance and distribution of 87 species of invertebrates and macroalgae at 100 sites around the UK Regional Seas and northern France on an annual basis.

The project has recorded some of the fastest distributional shifts in leading and trailing range edges of species in any natural system. MarClim is one of the MBA long-term time-series which span over half a century.

Animated shore crew

UK intertidal icons, turned up to eleven.

A playful placeholder gallery for topshells, limpets, wracks, barnacles and other rocky-shore legends.

topshell

Phorcus lineatus

Striped, stylish and suspiciously photogenic. Range-edge royalty.

topshell

Steromphala umbilicalis

A tiny spiral instrument for listening to the climate.

limpet

Patella vulgata

The conical grazer with a grip like a tax deadline.

barnacle

Semibalanus balanoides

Stone-cold filter feeder. Looks still, lives busy.

wrack

Fucus vesiculosus

Bladderwrack: buoyant, beautiful and deeply into gradients.

mussel

Mytilus edulis

A blue-black biogenic builder with serious shore architecture.

anemone

Actinia equina

Beadlet anemone: velvet drama in a splash zone frock.

periwinkle

Littorina littorea

Common periwinkle. Small shell, huge main-character energy.

Genomes · climate · experiments

From shore records to biological mechanisms.

Macroecological change is the visible crest; the portal can tease the deeper machinery beneath it.

This work has been extended to other temperate regions around the world including Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Current research investigates the biological mechanisms and changes in gene expression occurring in invertebrates and macroalgae that underpin macroecological responses to climate warming and ocean acidification.

The genome of every MarClim species is being sequenced as part of the MBA’s role in the Darwin Tree of Life Project. Combined laboratory and field experiments are exploring how increasing temperatures and ocean acidification alter reproductive cycles, performance, recruitment and invasive capabilities of non-natives.

Species-level evidenceInvertebrates and macroalgae tracked through space and time.

DNA

Genome-aware ecologyLinking observed range shifts to mechanisms and gene expression.

℃

Climate responseTemperature, acidification, recruitment and performance under pressure.

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