We colligate the Torrid Zone with danger , where life lives tight and dies young confront by a richness of lifeforms that wish to eat it . However , a recent find has marine biologists puzzled : large Pisces , include sharks , in reality bewilder more of a menace to those below them in the food chain in temperate waters than in tropical waters . The explanation for why this is continue elusive , but the crystal clear water supply in the Torrid Zone now look like an even more alluring place for a drop .
The closer you get to the equator , the more life there usually is , a rule that utilise both on land and in the oceans . Tropical rain forest and coral reefs bristle with species , fueled by the supererogatory zip stream in from the Sun . It makes sense for this to moderate to more interaction , including predator - prey relationships , since there are simply more things that could eat you – a view that has date back at least as far as Darwin .
Dr Marius Roestiof the University of British Columbia think that , like so many things we take for granted , it was time to apply some science to this one using datasets on taunt deep - sea fish line of credit in the assailable ocean . cover 900 million flack by large fish predators from 1960 to 2014 , the data is not only an impressively large sample but it also dates back far enough to test homo - induced disruptions .
InNature Communications , Roesti report that fishing baits were most likely to be taken in temperate areas and in places poor in mintage diversity , the exact reverse of what was bear . The pattern have throughout the globe ’s oceans , although it was stronger in the Southern Hemisphere , with baits being taken around 65 percent quicker between 30 and 40 S than within five level of the equator . depredation rates did fall sharply as latitudes increased above 40 , however .
Inevitably , over - fishing means it now takes a lot longer to get a bit from a large Pisces , but Roesti found this has scarce affect the proportional rate between dissimilar clime zone . Roesti and carbon monoxide - generator do n’t interpret why the pattern they feel occurs , writing that “ Evolutionary ecologists are now charged with explaining why the eco - evolutionary processes think to generate and wield diversity are not always strongest in the most divers regions on Earth . ”
Biologists did have some admonition that our theories of depredation being mellow in the tropics might be blemish . Several try have been made to try out the possibility on kingdom and the termination have been perplexing and contradictory . However , Roesti notes , these used sampling size of it far smaller than the one he drew on , wee unexpected finding gentle to send away .
