Tuna
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Pacific Island nations are expected to lose 50 to 80 percent of fish species by the end of the century. (emphasis added)

The alarming number was published in a study by the Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program in Marine Policy. The oceans in the Pacific Islands in particular, according to the study, are expected to be the most severely affected by climate change in the next century. These waters are already the warmest of the global ocean, and with less seasonal variability, animals in this area may be more shocked by changing conditions.

“Under climate change, the Pacific Islands region is projected to become warmer, less oxygenated, more acidic, and have lower production of plankton that form the base of oceanic food webs,” Rebecca Asch, lead author of the study and assistant professor of in the biology department at East Carolina University, said in a statement. “We found that local extinction of marine species exceed 50 percent of current biodiversity levels across many regions and at times reached levels over 80 percent.”

People who live in the […]

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