Credit: E.Moothart
A new study conducted at the New England Aquarium finds that as climate change causes the ocean to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished, and into environments that are already difficult for them to survive in.
In a recently published paper in the journal
Scientific Reports, lead author Carolyn Wheeler, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, examined the effects of increased temperatures on the growth, development and physiological performance of epaulette sharks an egg-laying species found only on the Great Barrier Reef. Wheeler studied the sharks as embryos and hatchlings, under the supervision of Dr. John Mandelman, Vice President and Chief Scientist of the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.
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Bleaching Hits Coral Reefs Faster
Coral reefs have always lived near the edge. Now, thanks to global warming, life there is five times more precarious.
By Tim Radford
Forty years ago, the world’s coral reefs faced a known risk: every 25 or 30 years, ocean temperatures would rise to intolerable levels.
Corals would minimise the risk of death by everting the algae with which they lived in symbiotic partnership: that is, the reef animals would avoid death by getting rid of the algae, deliberately weakening themselves.