Different groups of researchers study how carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activities can affect the oceans. These naturally absorb CO2, but since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, they have experienced increasing acidification. According to some hypotheses, this phenomenon could be related to the increase in emissions , and it is possible that it will increase even more throughout this century.
Until now, most of the studies that have examined the effect of acidification and increased temperatures associated with climate change on the behavior and physiology of fish have focused on small specimens, which are often part of the diet of large predators. But of the latter, there was not yet much data.
Well, in an article published in the journal Scientific Reports , a team of marine biologists from the Institute of the Environment at the University of Adelaide, in Australia, points out that these processes will negatively affect the hunting capacity of sharks and even their growth in the coming decades.
According to these experts, the embryonic development of sharks is faster when the sea temperature is higher. However, they have observed that if a higher level of CO2 is added to the above, sharks need a greater energy intake , have lower metabolic efficiency and a limited ability to detect prey through smell.
Biologist Jennifer Pistevos, who coordinated the work, points out that experiments with sharks in Sydney Harbor, many of which are bottom-feeding and bottom-feeding, have been found to take much longer. find them or that they don’t even try, which means that the new generations are smaller. “With a reduced capacity for hunting, sharks will no longer exert in the same way their function of control in oceanic food webs , something essential for the proper maintenance of ecosystems in the sea”, points out the ecologist Ivan Nagelkerken, one of the co-authors of the trial.
Professor Sean D. Connell, an expert in marine ecology from the aforementioned Australian institution, highlights that the results show that it is necessary to prevent excess catches of sharks. “The survival of a third of all species is threatened as a consequence of overfishing . Climate change will further increase the pressure on their populations and accelerate the extinction of these animals, ”says Connell.
