Marine life 'needs to swim faster to survive climate change'

An international team has claimed in its study that sea life, particularly in the Indian Ocean, the Western and Eastern Pacific and the subarctic oceans will face growing pressures to adapt or relocate to escape extinction. 

"Our research shows that species which cannot adapt to the increasingly warm waters they will encounter under climate change will have to swim farther and faster to find a new home," said team member, Prof John Pandolfi of ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.

Using 50 years data of global temperature changes since the 1960s, the scientists analysed the shifting climates and seasonal patterns on land and in the oceans to understand how this will affect life in both over the coming century. 

"We examined the velocity of climate change and the shift in seasonal temperatures for both land and sea. We found both measures were higher for the ocean at certain latitudes than on land, despite the fact that the oceans tend to warm more slowly than air over the land," he said.

The finding has serious implications for marine biodiversity hotspots, such as the famous Coral Triangle and for life in polar seas, which will come under rising pressure from other species moving in.

Source: Times of India