Top Ocean Predators Losing Habitat
The loggerhead sea turtle will face major challenges with changes in habitat. Photo credit: Marco Giuliano/Fondazione Cetacea/NOAA
A new study found that top ocean predators in the Pacific Ocean could lose up to 35 percent of their habitat by the end of the century. The study was conducted by a team of American and Canadian researchers who analyzed ten years of open-ocean animal tracking data.
Using the data from over 4,300 animals, they predicted that changes in temperature would also change the areas these predators depend on for food and shelter–some up to 600 miles.
Lead author and scientist with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Elliott Hazen explains that the animals will “have to travel farther and farther every year just to get to their food.”
These predicted changes have the largest impact on endangered species, like blue whales and loggerhead turtles that already require more protection, and predators that only live in a narrow temperature range, like blue and mako sharks. Contrary, species that are adaptable or highly mobile, like tuna and many seabirds, may actually benefit from temperature changes.
To learn more:
- Read more from the Washington Post: Climate change will shift marine predators’ habitat, study says.
- Find the study published on Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change: Predicted habitat shifts of Pacific top predators in a changing climate
Two blue whales. The blue whale is an endangered species and will be particularly vulnerable to shifts in habitat. Photo credit: A. Lombardi/NOAA.
Copyright © 2012 by Marine Science Today, a publication of Marine Science Today LLC.
