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A28 SCIENCE
Friday 24 February 2017

In hot water: Climate change harms hot spots of ocean life

SETH BORENSTEIN and eastern coast; and
AP Science Writer the Oceania region of the
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pacific around the inter-
six ocean hot spots that national date line. Four of
teem with the biggest mix the six hot spots are in the
of species are also getting Pacific; all are either in the
hit hardest by global warm- southern hemisphere or just
ing and industrial fishing, a north of the equator.
new study finds. “What makes this biodiver-
An international team sity? It’s the isolation,” Chi-
looked at more than 2,100 ardia said. “On land, we
species of fish, seabirds, have kangaroos and weird
marine mammals and even animals like the platypus.
tiny plankton to calculate And in the ocean it’s not
Earth’s hot spots of marine different.”
biodiversity. The ocean is home to Aus-
These underwater super- tralian sea dragons, a fish
zoos are in patches of related to the seahorse that
ocean that are overfished resemble mythical dragons
and warming fast, and and sometimes even have
these pressures hurt the yellow and purple markings
lush life there, according on their bodies.
to a study appearing in In this Aug. 27, 2015 file photo, a Penguin runs out of the ocean after swimming with other penguins These hot spots also tend
Wednesday’s journal Sci- at Boulders beach a popular tourist destination in Simon’s Town, South Africa. to be places where the
ence Advances . Associated Press
“In those hot spots, the ocean waters churn more,
changes are already hap- ing these areas and reduc- have identified key areas of When he went there, he Chiardia said.
pening,” says study co-au- ing fishing. biodiversity, the new work is got amazed,” Chiaradia Penguins, which are near
thor Andre Chiaradia, a se- “Biodiversity and fisheries more detailed. Researchers said. the top of the food chain,
nior scientist and penguin are humanity’s legacy” found the liveliest ocean Other hot spots include are a good example of the
expert at the Phillip Island that should be preserved, hot spot also happens to the southwestern Atlantic impact of changing water
Nature Parks in Australia. marine ecologist Maria be where the science of Ocean off Argentina; the temperatures and currents.
“They are the most at risk.” Vernet of the Scripps Institu- evolution sprouted: the Pa- western Indian Ocean off Warm El Nino waters have
Several outside marine and tion of Oceanography said cific Ocean off the central the African coast; the cen- decimated Galapagos
climate scientists praised in an email. She wasn’t part South American coast. It tral western Pacific Ocean penguins and the popu-
the work, saying it showed of the research. includes the area around surrounding Malaysia, Indo- lation of southern African
the importance of protect- While scientists in the past the Galapagos Islands and nesia and the Philippines; penguins has dropped by
goes back to “our good the southwestern Pacific about 90 percent in just 20
friend (Charles) Darwin. off Australia’s southern years, Chiardia said.q