Rapid Ocean Warming Drives Sexually Divergent Habitat Use in a Threatened Predatory Marine Ectotherm.

ABSTRACT: Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems worldwide, altering physical, chemical, and biological processes at unprecedented rates. Severe impacts on marine species and habitats have been extensively documented, with shifts in phenology, spatial distribution, and migratory behaviour increasingly pervasive. However, there is a lack of species-specific data examining responses and adaptation to rapid warming and environmental extremes, especially for marine ectotherms. In this study, we investigate the broad-scale environmental drivers of distribution in a Critically Endangered ectothermic marine predator, the angelshark Squatina squatina, and report on a behavioural anomaly observed in 2022. Between 2018 and 2023, 112 adult S. squatina were tracked using acoustic

SUBMITTER: Mead LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12266942 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature