The fight against climate change has been running for many decades now, and climate change is such a big problem that it affects not only humans, or trees, or land animals, it also affects marine life. Climate change is blamed by excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, which is the number one greenhouse gas and is released into the atmosphere. The biggest carbon sink in the world is the Atlantic Ocean and it helps absorb the carbon dioxide. Now, researchers have revealed how top predators in the Earth's ocean are helping the fight against climate change.
A study by Deakin University and is published in journal, Nature Climate Change, researchers revealed how predators like sharks are very important in keeping carbon dioxide in the oceans low. The study also points out that sharks are being hunted down by humans and it causes instability in the ocean's bio system. When there are fewer predators the prey will flourish, a phenomenon known as trophic meltdown.
Sea turtles is one of the sharks preys. And this turtles feed on seagrass, which stores vast reservoirs of carbon in its sediments. With a high number of sea turtles consuming the seagrass the more carbon is unlocked and released into the atmosphere. Acceleration on climate change is then seen.
The team from Deakin's Centre for Integrative Ecology within the School of Life and Environmental Sciences are now investigating the culture of shark-culling and the consequences it has on the climate. "For a long time we've known that changes to the structure of food webs - particularly due to loss of top predators such as sharks - can alter ecosystem function," Dr Peter Macreadie, Deakin project's lead researcher, said. If sharks will be gone, then the sea turtles will run freely and the seagrass ecosystem cannot sustain the turtle populations, she added.
Shark Bay, Western Australia is an area observed to have a decline in numbers of shark; the researchers used this and compared it to areas where there were an abundant number of the predators. They found that losing sharks and other top predators have led carbon storage rates being less and an imbalance in the natural carbon cycle in the ocean. As of now, the researchers have limited data on the topic, but further research is believed to back up the study.
