Cold-water fish food not adapting to a warming world, study says

Tiny sea creatures that play a big role in the ocean food chain are unable to adapt to warming oceans, according to a new study that may have profound ramifications for fisheries.

The cold-water plankton lives for one year or less. Researchers examined a 50-year dataset from the North Atlantic to determine how this creature and another plankton that thrives in warmer water fared over half a century.

"Lots of people have speculated that animals with short generation times will simply adapt to change," Graeme Hays, a marine scientist at Australia's Deakin University, told NBC News in an email. "We show that is not the case."

The range and abundance of the cold-water plankton, Calanus finmarchicus, declined while the warm-water species, C. helgolandicus, expanded its range and increased in abundance.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/cold-water-fish-food-not-adapting-warming-world-study-says-8C11432387