Highlights
The marine environment varies at many temporal scales, and extreme events, such as marine heatwaves (MHWs), have received increased attention as a major threat to ecosystems due to their potential to drive rapid declines in ecosystem health and functioning.
Ecological responses to MHWs are generally studied after the fact, and a framework for generating ecological forecasts and predictions is largely lacking.
Trait-based approaches allow us to use measurable and ecologically meaningful features of organisms, from individual physiological responses to biological interactions, to predict generalized ecological patterns in space and time.
The integration of trait-based approaches at multiple time scales, including that of MHWs, will allow for a better understanding of how extreme events will drive patterns of geographic distribution, local abundance, and functional diversity.