Population Of Herbivores Would Be Left When The Temperature Rises, Study Says

"If warmer temperatures decline of zooplankton in the ocean, as predicted by our study, it will ultimately lead to less food for fish and small crustaceans to humans." ~ Benjamin Gilbert

As climate change causes the temperature increases, the number of herbivores decrease, affecting the human food chain, according to a new study from the University of Toronto.

In the paper published this month, a team of ecologists American naturalist describes how differences in the general plants and herbivores change in temperature produces a predictable reduction of populations of herbivores. This decrease is due to herbivores grow faster at elevated temperatures of plants, herbivores, and consequently, the food runs out.

"If warmer temperatures decline of zooplankton in the ocean, as predicted by our study will ultimately lead to less food for fish and seafood at least for humans," says co-author of Benjamin Gilbert University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of T.

Several studies have shown how the metabolic rates of plants and animals change with temperature. Gilbert and his colleagues incorporated these rates commonly used in mathematical models of plants and herbivores to predict how the abundance of each should be changed with warming. Then compared their predictions on the results of an experiment in which the populations of plant and animal plankton in water tanks moved significantly to changes in water temperature.

Gilbert warns that long-term tests are required. However, if their predictions are correct, global warming will cause large changes in the food chain of the consequences of global food security and the protection of species.

The document entitled "The theoretical predictions about how temperature affects the dynamics of the interaction between plants and herbivores" was written by the co-authors of Gilbert and Mary O'Connor Chris Brown of the University of Queensland.