UÉ research warns about the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity
A study carried out by Joana Portugal, a doctoral student at the University of Évora (UÉ), explores the main global patterns of marine biodiversity and projects how they may change at the end of the century due to the impact of climate change. The results point to the widespread migration of species to higher latitudes in order to find refuge in areas with greater environmental suitability.
The great susceptibility of marine species to the changes that the climate has undergone in recent decades led Joana Portugal to carry out an investigation on a global scale. The doctoral student carried out a macroecological approach (subfield of ecology that studies the relationships between organisms and their environment at large spatial scales) that aims to analyze the impact of climate change on a restrict group of species.
Under the guidance of Miguel Araújo, researcher at the University of Évora, Rui Bairrão da Rosa, Assistant Professor at the Department of Animal Biology at the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) and François Guilhaumon, Researcher at the Research Institute for Development, in France, doctoral student Joana Portugal analyzed data from several areas to try to understand the probabilistic distribution of 125 species of lobster, 161 species of cephalopods, and 103 species of small pelagic fish, considered to be examples of high economic interest.
Through ecological niche models, a tool used to assess population distribution patterns, the doctoral student sought to project the most significant changes in the territorial reorganization of these analyzed species, as a way of trying to understand the impact that human activities have caused on wealth , abundance, and distribution of marine life and the health of the oceans.
Although global biodiversity patterns currently indicate greater wealth in the tropics and fewer species in greater latitudes, this study indicates that, until the end of the century, this trend will undergo significant changes with a generalized migration to greater latitudes in order to find refuge in areas with a greater environmental suitability.
