The Guardian: Marine species increasingly can’t live at equator due to global heating. Study suggests it is already too warm in tropics for some species to survive.
Global heating has made the ocean around the equator less rich in wildlife, with conditions likely already too hot for some species to survive, according to a new study.
Analysis of the changing locations of almost 50,000 marine species between 1955 and 2015 found a predicted impact of global heating – species moving away from the equator – can now be observed at a global scale.
It said further global heating, which is now unavoidable, would cut the richness of species in the ocean in tropical regions even further.
Scientists said the consequences of the shift could be profound and would be challenging to predict.
The research, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said: “Ocean warming is thus causing large-scale changes in the global latitudinal distribution of marine biodiversity. Despite less warming in the ocean than on land, marine species are shifting their distributions as fast or faster in response to warming than those on land.”