Posted Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:26am AEDT

Researchers from the University of British Columbia say the digestive systems of fish play a vital role in maintaining the health of the oceans and moderating climate change.

Computer models showed how bony fish produced a large portion of the inorganic carbon that helps maintain the oceans’ acidity balance and was vital for marine life, they said.

The world’s bony fish population, estimated at between 812 million and 2 billion tonnes, helped to limit the consequences of climate change through its effect on the carbon cycle, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

“This study is really the first glimpse of the huge impact fish have on our carbon cycle – and why we need them in the ocean,” researcher Villy Christensen and colleagues wrote.

Read full article from ABC News.

Filed under: Ali Perkins, News/Current Affairs