While searching the various links on Dr.Conrad's blog, I came accross an interesting article titled "Why sea critters go where they go". This article was found on the ocean channel link, and talks about how the physical property of ocean temperature can have such a dramatic an influential effect on where marine animals will end up as well as how to manage them effectively. This study is being conducted at the University of North Carolina, and it looks at how temperature can alter the number and diversity of marine organisms in the sea. Temperature has been shown to have an effect on how far larvae will travel before they mature and make home. Larvae in colder waters tend to travel further than larvae in warmer water due to the animals physiological response with respect to their development, as in warmer water they develop sooner and thus dont travel as far. This holds important considerations for their survival as if they dont travel as far they may never reach where they are supposed to and may not have enough food and may die. This article greatly shows how when studying marine life and conservation it is important to know that many changing physical, and chemical properties not influenced so much by humans can have a profound imapct on species evenness and species richness in our oceans, as well as affect how we should manage them.
No comments:
Post a Comment