Tag Archives: Fish

The Climate.gov article In search of cooler waters, marine species are shifting northward or diving deeper by John Dos Passos Coggin (4/3/2020) explains:

The graphs show the annual change in latitude and depth of 140 marine species along the northeastern U.S. coast and in the eastern Bering Sea. Changes in geographic distribution have been aggregated across all 140 species. In waters off the Northeast, fish and shellfish are moving northward at a significant rate; in the eastern Bering Sea, they are still shifting northward but at a lesser rate. Likewise, marine species in both regions are moving to deeper waters, but the rate of change in depth is especially high along the northeastern coast.

To learn more go to the GlobalChange.gov Marine Species Distribution page. On this page there is a link to oceanadapt.rutgers.edu to get data, although you will have to register.

Ocean Adapt from Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences has online materials that allow you to explore changes in marine species distribution.  For example, the graph here was produced from their National Data page. The graph represents the average change in latitude for 105 marine fish and invertebrate centers of abundance in the U.S. The data is particularly useful to use in a classroom because the residual plot is interesting.

The site also includes changes in depth as well as regional data where one can explore changes for specific marine species in a given region. Along with accessible data, the pages provide interactive graphs and a quick pdf guide on how to use the site.

NOTE: Sustainability Math now has a Twitter account, @SustMath, and Facebook page, Sustainability Math.