Source : Perth Now news
Ditching fish and chips could help save the planet.
Boffins are calling for people to stop scoffing down the British staple dish because Atlantic cod, skate, black seabream and red gurnard are key to maintaining the seabed.
Findings from the Convex Seascape Survey – which looked into what fish do in bioturbation, which sees sediments or soils be altered of mixed by living organisms – showed that 120 of the 185 fish species that help maintain the seabed’s good health were being taken out of the water.
Mara Fischer, study lead and a University of Exeter PhD student, said: “Ocean sediments are the world’s largest reservoir of organic carbon – so what happens on the seabed matters for our climate.
“Bioturbation is very important for how the seabed takes up and stores organic carbon, so the process is vital to our understanding of how the ocean absorbs greenhouse gases to slow the rate of climate change.
“Bioturbation is also important for seabed and wider ocean ecosystems. We have a good understanding of how invertebrates contribute to global bioturbation – but until now, we have been missing half the story.
“Our study is the first to attempt to quantify the bioturbation impact of fish, and it shows they play a significant, widespread role.”
Professor Callum Roberts, co-author and from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: “We also found that species with the highest bioturbation impacts are among the most vulnerable to threats such as commercial fishing.
“Many of the largest and most powerful diggers and disturbers of seabed sediments, like giant skates, halibut and cod, have been so overfished they have all but vanished from our seas.
“These losses translate into big, but still uncertain, changes in the way seabed ecosystems work.”
