Editorial: Advances in marine heatwave interactions

Abstract

With growing appreciation of the predominant role of climate extremes as the most impactful manifestation of anthropogenic warming, marine heatwave (MHW) research has exploded. Changes to the physical environment driven by MHWs can have devastating effects on ecosystems and reliant industries, with losses of tens of millions of US$ associated with many individual MHW events (Smith et al., 2021). This special edition explores new directions in MHW research around forecasting events across different timescales, understanding drivers, delving below the surface, examining the interaction between different types of extremes, and understanding the ecosystem and fisheries implications and how to manage these disruptive events.