A new study has shown that commercially important marine species will continue in having their shift distributed because of the ocean warming caused by climate change. The researchers have noticed that ocean waters warm two or three times quicker than the average global heat through the end of the century.
In the study published in Progress in Oceanography titled "Marine species distribution shifts on the U.S. Northeast Continental Shelf under continued ocean warming," scientists used a high-resolution global model and historical observations of marine species distributions located at the Northeast US Shelf. The also projected that the ocean warming will have the projected increase in surface to bottom waters of 6.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit or 3.7 to 5.0-degree Celsius from current conditions.
The study also suggests ocean temperature will continue to play a huge role in commercially and recreationally important marine species in finding suitable habitat to live with. The temperature of the sea surface in the Gulf of Maine would have warmed faster than 99 percent of the global ocean over the past decade.
In an article published in Phys.org, there are already Northward shifts that are happening in many marine species. This comes with a major change that is expected in the complex of species that occurs in different regions on the shelf and their shifts from one management to another. These changes on ocean warming will have a direct effect on fishing communities.
The study showed that marine species that have landed at those ports used by fishing communities have already moved out of range so a new set of species have moved in. Lead author Kristin Kleisner said that Mid-Atlantic Bight and the Georges Bank may have suitable habitat in the future.
"Marine species that are currently found in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and on Georges Bank may have enough suitable habitat in the future because they can shift northward as temperatures increase," she said. She is now a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund.
