February 8, 2024 — As global temperatures rise, so do ocean temperatures. The ocean absorbs about 90% of the world’s excess heat, and this leads to changes to the marine environment that go beyond temperature, making some areas uninhabitable for some marine species.
Researchers are working to understand and anticipate how these environmental changes will impact marine habitat shifts. A team of scientists, including UConn Department of Marine Science researchers Zhuomin (Jasmine) Chen and Samantha Siedlecki, is working together to improve forecasts of the habitat shifts for different marine species. Their findings have been published in Nature Communications
Habitats shift or shrink as marine species seek environments suitable for their survival and for satisfying other essential ecological activities such as growth, feeding, and reproduction. The ability to anticipate these shifts has great value for policymaking, research, and helping the fishing industry cope with the changing environment.
Chen explains that the multidisciplinary team predicted interannual-to-decadal habitat shifts for diverse marine species in the upper 600 meters of 11 North American Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs), based on a key metabolic index combined with a suite of decadal forecast systems.