Toronto, Oct 12 (IANS): large numbers of fish will disappear from the tropics by 2050 as the earth and the oceans get warmer and fish shift their habitat in search of cooler waters, a research found.

Changing temperatures will drive more fish into the Arctic and Antarctic waters, the findings showed.

"The tropics will be the overall losers," said co-researcher William Cheung, associate professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

"This area has a high dependence on fish for food, diet and nutrition. We will see a loss of fish populations that are important to the fisheries and communities in these regions," Cheung added.

Using the same climate change scenarios as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, researchers projected a large-scale shift of marine fish and invertebrates.

This study follows previous research that looked at change in fisheries catch in relation to ocean warming since 1970.

The study appeared in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.