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Researchers find animal that can survive climate change
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by amyjudd | September 25, 2008 at 03:54 pm
370 views | 10 Recommendations | 4 comments
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The main source of food for many fish, including the cod species, in the North Atlantic, has the ability to survive climate change.
Calanus finmarchicus, which is a plankton species, live in the North Atlantic where the research took place.
It showed they responded to global warming after the last Ice Age, around 18,000 years ago, by moving north and maintaining large population sizes and also suggests that these animals might be able to track the current change in habitat.
The effect of global climate change on the planet's ecosystems is one of the key issues scientists are currently focussing on and the research has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a publication of the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, today.
One of the main predicted effects of climate change is a forced shift in species' distribution range.
The study leader, Dr Jim Provan, from Queen's School of Biological Sciences, said the discovery that that a species has a feature which helps it cope with global warming is a rare example of good news.
"Our results, in contrast to previous studies, suggest that the species has been able to shift its distribution range in response to previous changes in the Earth's climate, and thus 'track' the effects of climate change, a feature which may be of crucial importance in its survival.
"The genetic variability of the species - the tendency of the genetic make-up of a population to vary from one individual to another - has remained high, which is good news, and suggests that these animals might be able to track the current change in habitat resulting from global warming and maintain viable population sizes.
"If the species couldn't, it might become extinct and thus threaten the fish species that depend upon it for food.
The research is planned to go further to see how the fish really adapt to severe climate change.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 21:54 on September 25th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:15 on September 26th, 2008
Filter feeding, predation and symbiosis with autotrophic phytoplankton as seen in corals. Zooplankton feed on bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, other zooplankton (sometimescannibalistically), detritus (or marine snow) and even nektonic organisms.
The North Sea averages about 100 m (325 ft) deep, with a maximum depth of 700 m (2300 ft) and in some areas shallows can be a mere 15 m deep. The North Sea lies above what used to be the triple junction between three continental tectonic plates in the early
According to this info this is to the benefit of Jelly Fish and other such creatures and this type of plankton likes colder deep waters and will help the colder areas as well as attract more jelly fish maybe. It is a new evolution and may radically change every thing, I am not sure if this is actually beneficial.
at 08:10 on September 26th, 2008
Good stuff
at 07:14 on October 22nd, 2008
Zoolankton, especially Rotifers like the one pictured here, can be very resilient to changing environments. This animal is from a sample taken from an urban stormwater pond.
aisha c. has contributed a photo to this story.