It found that as temperatures warm, predator-prey interactions will prevent species from keeping up with the conditions where they could thrive.
Not only will large species and commercially important fisheries shift out of their historical ranges as climate warms, but they will likely not be as abundant even in their new geographic ranges. For instance, a cod fisherman in the Atlantic might still find fish 200 years from now but in significantly lower numbers.
“What that suggests from a fisheries perspective is that while the species we fish today will be there tomorrow, they will not be there in the same abundance. In such a context, overfishing becomes easier because the population growth rates are low,” said study co-author Malin Pinsky. “Warming coupled with food-web dynamics will be like putting marine biodiversity in a blender.”
The new study looked at “trophic interactions”, the process of one species being nourished at the expense of another,...