A study of 406 cold-blooded animals revealed that climate change is already pushing marine species to their thermal limits.
Clown fish. Image: Max Pixel
Ocean creatures are twice as likely as land animals to lose their habitats due to climate change, according to a paper published Wednesday in Nature.
Marine species may be more vulnerable to extirpations—extinction from a local habitat—in part because they cannot seek refuge from extreme temperatures as easily as land animals, the study suggests.
Led by Malin Pinsky, an ecologist at Rutgers University, the authors calculated the heat tolerance of 318 terrestrial species, including butterflies, spiders, and lizards, and 88 marine animals, such as fish, molluscs, and crustaceans.
All 406 animals were included in the study because they are cold-blooded—they rely on external sources to regulate their body temperatures—and are particularly sensitive to climate shifts.
Pinsky and his colleagues calculated the “thermal safety…
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Exposing the Big Game 
And there’s so much other crap that goes on in our marine environments. Tremendous shipping activity, oil spills, crashing into coral reefs despite the most advanced navigational equipment, overfishing, drilling for oil and offshore wind, sonar noise for continually war planning and preparation for more drilling…. I’m surprised there’s anything left.
Carnival Cruise lines has been banned from US ports for violating probation for illegal dumping of oil, and God knows what else. I wouldn’t go on a cruise if my life depended on it. 😦
Thanks for mentioning sonar noise. And I doubt they’ll ever come up with a climate-friendly cruise ship…
God it is gross sounding – now they’ve had a measles outbreak on one, as well as many norovirus outbreaks..
When I visited the Caribbean, the ships are so large as to almost blot out the sun. *shudders*
Plus, we can’t forget the overwhelming amounts of plastic pollution in our oceans, enough for an alternative fuel source! 😦