Homeless marine species? Blame climate change
Increasing temperatures will affect the habitats of animals and plants, New international research suggests that increasing temperatures will affect the habitats of animals and plants, as several will be forced to leave their surroundings and find new environments; some marine species will have nowhere to go. The findings of the study, published in the journal Science, indicate how it will be difficult for marine species to keep up with the changes.Scientists led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute in the United Kingdom compared changing temperatures for both land and sea and from across regions in the period from 1960 to 2009. The data helped the researchers project the speed at which both terrestrial and marine species populations would be forced to move in order to deal with the changing temperatures. Their results show there is no significant difference between movement rates in the environments.'When temperatures rise, plants and animals that need a cooler environment move to new regions,' explains Dr Mike Burrows from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. 'The land is warming about three times faster than the ocean, so you might simply expect species to move three times faster on land, but that's not ...
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