Paper summary generated by OpenAI: This study investigates the impact of marine heatwaves (MHWs) on demersal fish communities across North America and Europe from 1993 to 2019, utilizing data from 82,322 scientific trawl surveys. Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal that MHWs do not significantly drive changes in fish biomass or community composition, with effects often indistinguishable from natural variability. While some instances of biomass decline were noted post-MHW, these occurrences were rare, suggesting that MHWs are not a dominant factor influencing the dynamics of fish populations in these ecosystems. This research challenges prevailing assumptions about the ecological consequences of marine heatwaves on commercially important fish species.
