Fish are encroaching on the sea kelp species

Under the impact of climate change, many fish species tend to invade and wipe out kelps under the sea.

Fishes are eating seaweed fiercely unprecedented when ocean temperatures warm up by climate change are found in the North NSW coast near Coffs Harbor.

To detect this situation, scientists combined underwater video surveillance videos for 10 years from 2002 to 2012, when temperatures rose to 0.6 degrees Celsius.

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The author of the study Dr Adriana Vergés of the UNSW Institute and Sydney Maritime Science Institute said: " Mangroves create an important habitat for hundreds of marine species, including fish, lobsters and abalone" .

Our results show that overgrazing of specific fish species can have a profound impact, leading to the destruction of coastal forests and coral reefs and sea kelp .

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This is the first study to show the effects of seawater temperature, double the mangrove forest, it not only directly affects seaweed, kelp, but also indirectly stimulates fish appetite. more so they spoiled seaweed kelp and can gradually create certain ocean scratches.

"The increase in the number of fish eaten by the warming of the ocean poses a significant threat to ecosystems in Australia and globally," she said .

This research has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The team recorded videos underwater around August every year in 12 25 km coastline locations near Solitary Island Marine Park in northern NSW.

During this period, kelp also completely disappeared in some areas, although initially proliferating.

At the same time, the proportion of fish eating algae, tropical seaweed and tropical fish in this area increased three times faster with the decrease in kelp 7 times faster during the past decade.

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' We conducted a seaweed culture experiment and found out that two species of hot water fish' rabbit fish 'and' drum fish 'are two of the algae species, the most fierce seaweed, it can eating seaweed, young seaweed at an average rate of 300 times per hour, "said Dr. Vergés.

In Australia, the Northern NSW coastal mangrove forests support commercial fishing, tourism and entertainment activities worth more than $ 10 billion per year. Dr. Vergés added: ' The decline of kelp in temperate regions may have major impacts on the regional economy .'

The videos studied from 2002 onwards also help to measure the number of fish in and out of marine protected areas. Also can it be used to see if kelp can recover under the seabed?