Planktonic copepod Image: Wikipedia
Posted on 09/27/2011 12:24:34 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
From the Queen Mary, University of London , there was shrinkage, of plankton no less. I’m sure it’s easy to extrapolate that right up to the top of the food chain.
Planktonic copepod Image: Wikipedia
How global warming could cause animals to shrink
The way in which global warming causes many of the world’s organisms to shrink has been revealed by new research from Queen Mary, University of London.
Almost all cold-blooded organisms are affected by a phenomenon known as the ‘temperature-size rule’, which describes how individuals of the same species reach a smaller adult size when reared at warmer temperatures. But until now, scientists have not fully understood how these size changes take place.
Writing in the journal The American Naturalist, Dr Andrew Hirst and colleagues from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences explore this unusual shrinking effect in more detail, and show conclusively how it occurs.
Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the study was carried out using data on marine planktonic copepods. These tiny crustaceans are the main animal plankton in the world’s oceans and are important grazers of smaller plankton and a food source for larger fish, birds and marine mammals.
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
MILLIONS of years ago when the atmosphere of the earth was more oxygen rich, insects were larger because more O2 could permiate their circulatory system free bodies.
I call BS on this too.
Didn’t realize shrinkage was a “warming” phenomenon.
(Seinfeld ping. Want on our list? Name names. Want off? Sorry, no “shrinkage” of the list allowed!)
It causes the left to shrink the truth!
It’s not BS... It’s magic! Just look at all the stuff global warming can do. About the only thing it can’t do is make it though a real scientific review by objective scientists.
that is a madarian goby. until recently they where 100% wild caught and only ate copeopds. about 10,000 a day. Now they are captive breed and eat prepared fish foods. They are making great advances in captive breeding of saltwater fish and corals :)
its the most commonly asked for saltwater fish after the common orange clown (nemo)
they prefer items of substance for dinner :)
These danged tyrannosauri are always nibbling on my ankles, until I kick ‘em under the coffee table.
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Sponge Bob square pants and his gang ought to set up a MacDonalds under the sea an fatten these little guys up a bit.
Just asking such a question makes you a Dinophobe - therefore you have no right to an answer... /s
I’d like my shrinks to shrink.
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