Marine predators have expanded their range in the world’s waters. Arctic Over the last two decades, it has been driven by climate change and consequent increases in the productivity of these waters.
The seas surrounding the Arctic are important fisheries and ecological regions, but are also among the areas most affected by climate change.
An international research team led by Irene D. Alabia of Hokkaido University’s Arctic Research Center studied regional and Arctic-wide changes in species range, composition and possible species relationships. Findings published in the journal Scientific Reportsshows Recent changes in biodiversity have been driven by the widespread expansion of the range of several species towards the poles.
“We used data on the existence of 69 species “We combined this information with climate and productivity data from the same period to map species-specific habitat distributions,” explains Alabia.
The team calculated species richness (number of different species represented in study regions), community composition, and overlaps between species pairs over the twenty-year study period in each of the eight Arctic regions.
whales and sharks
The most important finding they found was that species richness increased over the study period.It is driven by the northward migration of top predators such as whales, sharks, and seabirds.
In contrast, mesoppredators such as fish and crabs exhibited relatively limited northward migration, confined to the shallow seas of the Pacific and Atlantic continental shelves.
Although the spatial scope changes, This northward expansion was driven by changes in climate, productivity, or both.
These climate-induced changes in biodiversity, in turn, caused changes in possible associations of species, due to habitat overlap between taxa of different marine communities during periods of unprecedented change in temperature and sea ice.
“Our findings revealed that changes in climate and species richness are occurring in the Arctic. differs in different marine areaswith critical productivity points and emerging earnings areas of the species,” Alabia concluded.
“This information is important to strengthen conservation and management efforts For the sustainable use of resources under the increasing footprints of climate change in the Arctic,” he concludes.
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