The study quantifies for the first time future losses in deep-sea marine life, using advanced climate models.
Results show that even the most remote deep-sea ecosystems are not safe from the impacts of climate change.
An international team of scientists predict seafloor dwelling marine life will decline by up to 38 per cent in the North Atlantic and over five per cent globally over the next century.
In the study, led by the National Oceanography Centre, the team used the latest suite of climate models to predict changes in food supply throughout the world oceans. They then applied a relationship between food supply and biomass calculated from a huge global database of marine life.
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These changes in seafloor communities are expected despite living on average four kilometres under the surface of the ocean.
Nutrient supplies will suffer because of climate impacts such as a slowing of the global ocean circulation, as well as increased separation between water masses - known as 'stratification' - as a result of warmer and rainier weather.
"There has been some speculation about climate change impacts on the seafloor, but we wanted to try and make numerical projections for these changes and estimate specifically where they would occur," lead author Dr Daniel Jones said.
The projected changes in marine life are not consistent across the world, but most areas will experience negative change. Over 80 per cent of all identified key habitats - such as cold-water coral reefs, sea-mounts and canyons - will suffer losses in total biomass.
The analysis also predicts that animals will get smaller. Smaller animals tend to use energy less efficiently, thereby impacting seabed fisheries and exacerbating the effects of the overall declines in available food, researchers said.