Las Vegas City Wire

Scientists affiliated with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are studying the impact that humans have had on marine life.

According to a news release shared by the university, the study makes a comparison between the current and ancient ocean ecosystems to learn about their vitality and strength.

“Learning how food webs work is very important for conservation because it helps scientists predict how ecosystems will respond to climate change,” study co-author Carrie Tyler, a marine conservation paleobiologist and assistant professor in the UNLV department of geoscience, said in the release.

Some scientists believe that food sources in the ocean have been consistent for the past 540 million years. UNLV scientists found that ancient food webs are distinct to their modern counterparts.

The study has gone to press in the current issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Researchers relied on fossils to reconstruct four distinct marine food webs from when dinosaurs roamed the Earth over 65 million years ago.

Using a contemporary Jamaican reef, scientists found that the four prehistoric food webs were very different from one another and did not have similarities with the Jamaican reef.

According to Tyler, this can make it challenging to reintroduce species in the future, because their roles could no longer be compatible with the system. By providing a different perspective on conservation efforts, using paleontology in this way can help us understand what we should be protecting and how to save it.

By examining these patterns throughout time, Roxanne Banker, a postdoctoral researcher at UNLV who is collaborating with Tyler, continued, "We can uncover methods to encourage more resilient communities now and in the future."