By the end of the century, there could be a mass extinction of up to 90 PERCENT of all marine species if greenhouse gases are not curbed, a new study warns
- Experts examined the climate risk of almost 25,000 marine species worldwide
- This shows that up to 90 percent of species will become extinct by 2100
- This will happen if people don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions by then
- Mammals, rays and sharks have the highest risk of extinction
Nearly 90 percent of all marine species are at high or critical risk of extinction by the end of the century if humans don’t curb greenhouse gas emissions, a new study warns.
A team of researchers led by Dalhousie University in Canada assessed the climate risks of nearly 25,000 species living in the top 328 feet of the ocean and found that a large amount will disappear from the planet by 2100 if emissions continue at high levels Stay level or a “business-as-usual” scenario.
This would result in a mass extinction of the thousands of animals, plants, chromists, protozoa, and bacteria that call the world’s oceans home.
The analysis shows that a “disproportionate number” of sharks, rays and mammals are at high or critical climate risk – 75 percent of them are projected to become extinct by 2100.
All threatened species also live in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Gulf of Thailand, the Coral Triangle, northern Australia, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, coastal India, the Caribbean and some Pacific islands.
The study looked at almost 25,000 marine species to determine how many will disappear by the end of the century due to man-made greenhouse gases – and the team found up to 90 percent
The study also found that the top predators are more at risk of extinction than those further down the food chain, according to the study published in Nature.
The team focused on the species living in the upper ocean because that’s where ‘climatic temperature changes are strongest’.
The greatest susceptibility has been identified in large, long-lived species that are heavily exploited and of critical conservation concern.
For example, the study detects the Chinese puffer at a heavily affected nearshore site near China in the high emission scenario.
The analysis shows that a “disproportionate number” of sharks, rays and mammals are at high or critical climate risk – 75 percent of them are projected to become extinct by 2100. Pictured is a mako shark that has been listed as endangered since 2018
The study also found that the largest predators are more at risk of extinction than those lower in the food chain. If they go extinct, the absence will rock the ecosystem. The map above shows where sharks are threatened and below highlights mammals
The Galapagos Damselfish, which lives around the Galapagos Islands and off the coast of Costa Rica, is also classified in the Highest Concern group.
The lowest vulnerability rating is for a shorter-lived, vertically migratory, mesopelagic, pan-global species, the blunt lanternfish, at an offshore location in the low-emission scenario.
Daniel Boyce, an ecologist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and author of the study, told ABC News the results were “pretty startling and very sobering.”
“I’d like to think that’s an implausible scenario,” Boyce said.
“Nevertheless, it’s the worst-case scenario. And when we assessed that scenario, we found that there is a very grim picture for climate risk to marine species.”
Not only would these creatures no longer roam the seas, their disappearance would have major consequences for the ecosystem as it would disrupt the food chain.
The last time 90 percent of life was wiped out from Earth was 252 million years ago during what is known as the Great Dying.
Scientists have linked what has become known as the “Great Dying” to a series of massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia that have filled the atmosphere with greenhouse gases.
The eruption spewed carbon and methane into the atmosphere for about 2 million years and helped wipe out about 96 percent of marine life and 70 percent of land-based vertebrates — the largest extinction event in Earth’s history.
WHAT WAS THE PERMIAN MASS EXTINCTION KNOWN AS “THE GREAT EXTINCTION” WHICH KILLED 9 OUT OF EVERY 10 SPECIES?
About 248 million years ago the Permian ended and the Triassic began on Earth.
The border between these two geological epochs marks the Permian mass extinction, nicknamed “The Great Dying”.
Almost all life on earth was wiped out in this cataclysmic event.
Scientists believe that around 95 percent of all marine life perished during the mass extinction, and less than a third of life on land survived the event.
Overall, it is believed that 90 percent of all life has been wiped out.
All life on Earth today descends from the approximately 10 percent of animals, plants, and microbes that survived the Permian mass extinction event.
It was previously thought that a huge eruption blanketed the Earth in thick smog and blocked the sun’s rays from reaching the planet’s surface.
However, new evidence suggests that a massive volcanic eruption lasting nearly a million years released a vast reservoir of deadly chemicals into the atmosphere that have been stripping the Earth of its ozone layer.
This wiped out the only protection earthlings had against the sun’s deadly UV rays.
This high-energy form of radiation can severely damage living organisms and skyrocket the death toll.