Research: Why Ocean Warming Has an Influence on Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) Migration
Awards: Somers Science Fair 2022 Participant
Mentor: Joel Rodriguez and Jason Bonet
Research Location: Groundwork HV Science Barge
Abstract:
Climate change is changing the earth's ocean temperature as we know it in the long-run. This leads to the possible migration of Tiger Sharks (Galoecerdo cuvier) and adaptation.Ocean temperature changes can alter the tiger shark's natural habitat and way of life. Climate change causes disruption of migration patterns for tiger sharks. This research will attempt to find out what is the preferred temperature of G. cuvier and find out if climate change extends the distributional range farther poleward.The NOAA has tagged G. cuvier in order to find them and keep a log of location current. They have tagged and tracked Tiger sharks on their dorsal fin and used an Argos satellite after popping off their tags and transmitting data. Ocean temperature will be kept and counted for every day, and will all be along the Atlantic ocean using lighter and darker colors to show how tiger sharks migrated as time passed on. In a research paper by Hammerschlag et al. in 2022, they used a similar process in order to track Tiger sharks. It is expected that the Tiger sharks have migrated more north due to the changing in ocean temperature. However with this new data it is also expected that the tiger sharks will have quickly adapted to this new change in climate.Research by Hammerschlag et al. in 2022, found that in the colder seasons G. cuvier will stay along the east coast of mainly Florida to New york, as in the hotter seasons they were all distributed north and south along the Atlantic but in the 9th year of tracking they have migrated far north to a big extent. This research is important because G. cuvier impacts ecosystem functionality as well as human to wildlife interaction and is a big part of fisheries.
Great job, Antonio!