Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A study of 12 species of highly migratory fish predators—including sharks, tuna, and billfish such as marlin and swordfish—finds that most of them will encounter widespread losses of suitable habitat and redistribution from current habitats in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWA) and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by 2100. These areas are among the fastest-warming ocean regions and are projected to increase between 1-6°C (+1-10°F) by the end of the century, a sign of climate-driven changes in marine ecosystems.
In some cases, these iconic, and economically and ecologically important species, could lose upwards of 70% of suitable habitat by the end of the century, and in most cases, the impacts of these climate-induced changes are already observable.
“The ongoing and projected effects of climate change highlight the urgent need to adaptively and proactively manage dynamic marine ecosystems,” according to the study, “Widespread habitat loss and redistribution of marine top predators in a changing ocean,” published in the journal Science Advances.
[...] Scientists used three decades of satellite, oceanographic model, and in situ biological data to develop dynamic species distribution models to assess how climate change has already and will continue to impact the fish species in the NWA and GOM.
“Our research demonstrates that climate-driven changes are happening now, not from projections of climate change, but based on observed empirical data from the last two decades. So while our findings do point to larger species shifts in the near term, it also clarifies the substantial changes in species distributions that have already occurred,” said study co-author Rebecca Lewison. She is professor of biology and a conservation ecologist at the Coastal and Marine Institute at San Diego State University. She added that the research results “highlight the importance of using NASA and other satellite data to understand how a changing ocean is impacting commercially important marine species like swordfish and tunas.”
The study “not only sheds more light on the far-reaching effects of climate change on ocean environments but highlights that marine conservation and management efforts need to plan for these ongoing changes. If migratory fish are on the move, fishing vessels and coastal communities will also need to adapt. Studies like this will help marine resource agencies be even more dynamic in their decision-making,” said study co-author Tobey Curtis, a fishery management specialist in the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division of NOAA Fisheries.
[...] “We are doing our best to try to figure out what will happen, so that people can adapt and so that we can develop climate-resilient or climate-ready management policies,” Braun said.
He said that historic ways to manage fisheries are static, even though fish move around a lot. “We basically draw a box in the ocean and say whether you can or can’t fish there,” he said. Dynamic ocean management frameworks “must embody expected changes. Otherwise, you are left with your static box in the ocean that doesn’t move, even though the fish may have moved, and the ocean may have changed.”
Reference: “Widespread habitat loss and redistribution of marine top predators in a changing ocean” by Camrin D. Braun, Nerea Lezama-Ochoa, Nima Farchadi, et al., 9 August 2023, Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi2718
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Thursday August 29 2024, @04:39PM
When you start with a predetermined conclusion, of course all your data points will support it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday August 29 2024, @07:59PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday August 30 2024, @12:24PM
To where does it redistribute the habitat of polar species?
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