GW risks Antarctic sea life (bad news for sea spiders, floppy ribbon worms)

[Wretched Excess]

Warming risks Antarctic sea life

Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn.

Crabs are poised to return to the Antarctic shallows, threatening creatures such as giant sea spiders and floppy ribbon worms, says a UK-US team.

Some have evolved without predators for tens of millions of years.

Bony fish and sharks would move in if waters warm further, threatening species with extinction, they say.

In the last 50 years, sea surface temperatures around Antarctica have risen by 1 to 2C, which is more than twice the global average.

Loss of species

Speaking in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the researchers said global warming could fundamentally change the ecosystem, leading to the loss of some species.

 "Sharks are going to arrive in Antarctica as long as the warming trend continues, a bit more slowly than crabs - crabs are going to get there first," said Professor Cheryl Wilga of the University of Rhode Island (URI), US. "But once they do get there they are capable of eating the organisms that live there."

Professor Wilga said the arrival of sharks and shell-crushing bony fishes would lead to dramatic changes in the number and proportions of species found there.

Shrimp, ribbon worms and brittle stars are likely to be the most vulnerable to population declines.

Dr Sven Thatje of the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, UK, said animals living in shallow water in Antarctica were unique on Earth today because they evolved in a very cold environment over tens of millions of years.

More

heaven forbid that we should run out of these things.



kill all the sharks, and catch all the crabs.  problem solved, right?

[Lord Undies]

That's the breaks, Kiddos.  Adapt or die. 

I wish they would stop perpetrating these stories on the gullible and stupid.  Extinction is just as much a part of creation as living.  In fact, the earth would be quite a different and hostile place today if there was no such thing as extinction. 

[Chris_]

TNO arrival in

3.....2.....1.....

[Crazy Horse]

Kill em all...............and after that wipe out all the whales. Start with the Right Whales so we can get rid of these speed limits at sea. next take out all the dolphins also...........greedy fish eatin bastards they are and then maybe we can use our Naval Sonar again.

After that nuke all the foreign shrimp farms that have already destroyed the natural habitat and start buying again the fresh local variety.

Then again find out if the Japenese like these slugs, sea spiders and such and have em kill em all.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Sounds like great news for the sharks, bony fishes, and crabs, though!

 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Kill 'em all and let Darwin sort them out.

[Wretched Excess]

Kill 'em all and let Darwin sort them out.

they look like Divine "Whoopsies" or evolutionary exceptions in the first place.

[Ptarmigan]

Global warming benefits ptarmigans. 

[SilverOrchid]

 

[jinxmchue]

Note to all supposedly "threatened" species:


EVOLVE OR DIE.


Thank you.  That is all.