An unforgettable, impressionable picture of marine mammals in 2023, must be of a whale cow and its tiny calf caught on camera.
Work by researchers from the University of Southampton, on “tropicalization” suggests the young ones might not survive, if temperature levels, continue to rise.
Karolina Zarzyczny, a researcher at the University of Southampton who led the research on, “tropicalization” says “it is having a multitude of ecological and evolutionary consequences for species, communities, and whole ecosystems, with the potential to alter global diversity patterns.”
The Hotspot was where tropical species thrived, in the Mediterranean Sea.
The research suggests tropical species are moving from the equator towards the poles to escape rising sea temperature levels. This causes competition for habitat.
This is changing the ecology of the ocean, ecosystems and biodiversity.
Dr. Phil Fenberg, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and a co-author of the paper said, “one way to help mitigate the negative impacts of tropicalization is to create networks of marine protected areas in regions undergoing tropicalization. In these protected areas, we will be better positioned to remove the other impacts outside of climate-induced effects, like fishing pressure and habitat degradation.”
Article was first published by researchers in Phys.org
Picture: IFL Science
More information: Karolina M. Zarzyczny et al, The ecological and evolutionary consequences of tropicalisation, Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.10.006