New research: Aquatic animals shrink due to temperature

New research: Aquatic animals shrink due to temperature
November 6, 2012
By: Paul Hamaker

New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on November 5, 2012, is the first to define the relationship between animal size and the differences that increasing global temperature effects have on terrestrial and aquatic animal's size.

Dr. David Atkinson of the University of Liverpool Dr. Andrew Hirst from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences conducted experiments on 169 species of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species to determine the effect temperature increases have on the animal's growth. No animals were harmed in the experiments.

The most important factor that effects animal growth is the availability of oxygen according to the researcher's results. Aquatic animals, both freshwater and marine, have a lower ability to obtain oxygen in high temperature environments.

The animals compensate for the lack of oxygen by being smaller in size. Animals in water decrease in size by 5 percent for every degree Celsius of warming, similarly sized species on land shrink, on average, by just half a percent.

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http://www.examiner.com/article/new-research-aquatic-animals-shrink-due-to-temperature