Scientists Predict Aquatic Food Chains Will Be Ruined By Climate Change
April 20, 2022
A team of scientists developed an advanced computer model to predict the effects of climate change on marine life food chains and the results are bleak. As the climate change situation worsens, marine species such as cod will migrate to other regions where the temperatures can be a little forgiving. This shift to other regions by the plethora of marine species will cause major disruptions in the aquatic food chains.
The scientists published the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The study is a forecast of the effects of climate change on marine aquatic life food chains over the next 200 years, which is the first to focus specifically on the food chain disruptions caused by climate change. The study revealed that, although, the aquatic species may not go extinct due to climate change, the volume of species will definitely shrink largely. The scientist used the computer model to study the predator-prey interactions with climate change thrown into the mix and found that the large predator species will be slow to adapt to warming temperatures as they may shift slowly to other regions.
E.W. Tekwa, a scientist at the University of British Columbia who was a member of the team says “The model suggests that over the next 200 years of warming, species are going to continually reshuffle and be in the process of shifting their ranges. Even after 200 years, marines species will still be lagging behind temperature shifts, and this is particularly true for those at the top of the food web.”
This study is also the first to introduce the metabolism, body size and the optimum temperatures of the species in the food chains. The study revealed that the predators at the top may be able to survive longer due to their delayed response to increasing temperatures in the sea. In such cases, the arrival of new preys may be able to sustain the top predators longer.
As the world is already grappling with decreasing fish supplies, the shift and disruptions in the aquatic life food chains could devastate the fish supplies even further.