Overfishing is one of the biggest threats our oceans are facing. With fish stocks quickly depleting, some marine ecosystems are greatly struggling. Each animal has a specific role to play in the food web. Some fish live longer than others; some reproduce earlier or later in the life cycle than others. What happens when the natural food web is disrupted due to overfishing? Researchers from the Vancouver Aquarium and Florida International University teamed up to study how predators interact with their prey when the food web is forced to change due to overfishing and disruption of the natural life cycle of certain species.
In this study, researchers presented kelp greenling, juvenile lingcod, and rockfishes with live shrimps as well as with a fiberglass model of an adult lingcod, a common predator. You can read the full study here.
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Guest post by the Vancouver Aquarium
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
