Climate Change Has Massive Impact on Global Distribution of Marine Biodiversity

It turns out that warming oceans may have a major impact on the global distribution of marine biodiversity. Researchers have taken a closer look at what climate change might mean for reefs.

It turns out that a rapidly warming climate may cause many species to expand into new regions. This, in turn, would impact native species. Those with restricted ranges, in particular, are likely to face extinction.

In order to model the projected impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, the researchers used climate-velocity trajectories, a measurement which combines the rate and direction of movement of ocean temperature bands over time, together with information about thermal tolerance and habitat preference.

The findings reveal the simplest expectation for the future distribution of marine biodiversity, showing recurring spatial patterns of high rates of species invasions coupled with local extinctions. In fact, it's likely that current, distinct ecological communities will become much more similar to each other in many regions by the end of the century.

"This study was particularly useful because it not only gave us hope that species have the potential to track and follow changing climates but it also gave us cause for concern, particularly in the tropics, where strong biodiversity losses were predicted," said John Pandolfi, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This is especially worrying, and highly germane to Australia's coral reefs because complementary studies have shown high levels of extinction risk in tropical biotas, where localized human impacts as well as climate change have resulted in substantial degradation."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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