Climate Change Will Affect Ocean Food Supply

Mafia-fishery-webMajor shifts in fisheries distribution due to climate change will affect food security in tropical regions most adversely, according to a new study led by the Sea Around Us Project’s William Cheung (now based at the University of East Anglia in the UK). The study, published today Global Change Biology, finds that climate change will produce major shifts in productivity of the world’s fisheries, affecting ocean food supply throughout the world, most particularly in the tropics. Read the full press release here and a summary of scientific findings and some of the major maps and graphs from the climate change study here . The Pew Environment Group also put out a report on the study in their Ocean Science Series.

First Global Estimate of Fish Biomass

fishrocksSea Around Us Project member Villy Christensen is author on a paper that provides first-ever estimate of worldwide fish biomass and impact on climate change. Read the press release and the full study published in Science (here also is a link to the associated ‘perspective’ article). Below is a video animation of fish excreting pellets of calcium carbonate, a chalk-like substance also known as “gut rocks,” in a process completely separate from food digestion (animation by Dalai Felinto).