From the “CO2 is the most deadly omnipotent force in the Universe department”, comes this tragic story of poor Nemo the clownfish, so disoriented by CO2 that he can’t choose the right path to swim. Rebuttal(s) follow in subsequent posts, but first here is the story on the research from James Cook University. Original press release here, ABC news story below. Look for a Disney/Pixar sequel soon, sure to frighten the children. – Anthony
Rising CO2 may lead Nemo to danger
By Katherine Nightingale for ABC Science Online
Global warming could have an unexpected effect on the clownfish star of Finding Nemo and his kind, by making them indulge in risky behaviour, say researchers.
Previous research indicates that as carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere climb the surface water of the oceans could become acidic.
Scientists have already shown that this acidification interferes with fish larvae’s sense of smell and ability to find a suitable home.
Now research led by marine researcher Professor Philip Munday of James Cook University (JCU) has found it could also make fish less aware of – and even attracted to – predators.
They publish their research this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
As part of the study, the researchers put clownfish and damselfish larvae into seawater equivalent to that which would be found if the atmosphere contained 700 ppm and 850 ppm of CO2 – levels that could be reached by the end of the century.
They found that after four days, half of the larvae in the 700 ppm group were less able to detect the smell of a predator, while all the larvae in 850 ppm group were actually attracted to the predator scent.
Damselfish larvae that were then released onto a reef were more active and behaved more boldly than normal, spending less time near shelter and more time near predators. They were also five to nine times more likely to die than normal fish born in 390 ppm conditions.
Profound implications
The results suggest this could have a huge impact on ocean biodiversity.
“Being attracted to the smell of a predator isn’t likely to be a very good thing,” Mr Munday said.
Professor David Booth, a marine ecologist at the University of Technology Sydney who was not involved in the study, says the behavioural choices made by young fish are thought to strongly affect populations.
“This finding of negative effects on such choices could have profound implications for the dynamics of fish populations,” he said.
The researchers are now trying to pin down why acidification causes the fish to behave more boldly, as well as looking at the wider effects on population balance in reef ecosystems.
Mr Munday says, for example, different species could have different tolerances, and acidification could make predators more or less inclined to eat.
Professor Geoffrey Jones, also of JCU and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said the research took the level of concern about the effects of climate change on coral reef fish “to a whole new level”.
“Without drastic action to cut emissions, all we can do is hope that fish will be able to adapt,” Mr Jones said.
“However, given that the rate of CO2 increase is unprecedented, there are no grounds for optimism.”
===================================
Gosh, look at this, CO2 (confirmed by sampling and analysis) bubbling right out of the sea floor next to healthy reef corals. More on this later.
“Oh yes, we can!” – say bolder clown fish.
“A change of hope is CO2, capisce?”
“Global warming could have an unexpected effect on the clownfish star of Finding Nemo and his kind, by making them indulge in risky behaviour, say researchers.”
Like, uhhh…unprotected sex? Very bizarre choice of words!
One question:
Did the clownfish live through geological ages with much higher CO2 levels?
In the end when you read the article it all comes down to “could/if/may” doesnt it? The authors are trying to portray their research as reality when in fact it is as far from reality as its possible to get outside congress/parliament.
Like all the other stocking fillers, hundreds of them, they look real but on closer inspection they are just faked fronts. They are all the same, ‘ifs and mays’ based on biased supposition of an unproven effect caused by a trace gas that has somehow in the eons of the earths evolution not happened before even with great CO2 concentrations.
It aint science is it? Its rekord soviet traktor targets, made up hogwash and badly made up slapdash hogwash at that, it should be laughed at and failed if it came from a eighth graders term paper.
Well, if Nemo likes the smell of the sharks and if the predators “could” be less inclined to eat, then that’s a bad thing?
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
And maybe, when that glorious day comes, these rentseeking idiots will give over with their infantile scare stories?
Marvelous stuff. Thanks for that, Anthony. My nerve endings are all-a-shiver -oops, sorry, that should be all-a-sweaty! Poor Nemo. Somebody challenge these guys credentials, please. I find the conclusions some of these ‘pseudo scientists’ mind boggling. Fruit loops and space cadets, all of them. How do they draw a salary? CO2 emissions have historically been as high as 1700 ppm with earth’s temperature cruising at a pleasant average of around 22 degrees -with no human contribution. Don’t they know anything? It’s hard to believe so many, otherwise passably intelligent human beings can be so seduced by money and prestige (I know, I realise, there’s nothing new in that) by there sycophantic peers to perpetuate these myths.
Somehow, I think Nemo will survive -he’s a cartoon, for heaven’s sake! (Just like these fellows!)
Well, this fits in well with the announcement that fish actually talk to each other.
Some reef fish, such as the damselfish, made sounds to attempt to scare off threatening fish and even divers, he said.
Breitbart link
There’s a joke in this somewhere, but I don’t speak damselfish.
A few years ago, Pixar put out a Christmas card that had a half open box of sushi, on it, with some of the pieces orange and black and white.
So CO2 now causes “risky behavior” in otherwise cautious individuals?
That explains a lot. The government should fund a grant to some suitably credentialed academic with nothing better to do to conduct research into whether lowering the CO2 content of the air in gay bath houses reduces the frequency of unsafe sex.
It reminds me of an experiment that could have been done in London many years ago. There was a moth (I think) that was most likely to be white, but occasionally would be black. An experiment that placed those moths against a black background (such as created from soot from factory chimneys) would have those moths being killed in great rates because they would be so visible.
Obviously a major threat to the moth species. Doom and disaster!
Of course, what actually happened was natural selection changed the moth to being predominantly black with some white ones. The moth species survived quite happily. When conditions changed and the London air was cleaned up, the moth changed back to being predominantly white.
The report says that half of the larvae were disorientated at the 700ppm level, so that means half weren’t. Clearly, that half (with apparently some resistance) will be the ones that the next generation will spring from, with a good probability of inherited resistance.
You put a person from ice cold water into very hot water, and they’ll have an extreme reaction, probably involving yelling and cursing. You ease them slowly from ice cold water to very hot water, and they’ll cope quite well.
To me the study, while technically accurate, is clearly not relevant to how the fish species will react if CO2 levels increase.
Ask any aquarist who grows corals to see if they use a Calcium Reactor.
Deposits of dead coral are mined, chopped up into bits, sold and packed into the reactor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragonite
CO2 gas is then bubbled through — the acidification breaks down the calcium compounds in the dead coral and provides nutrients for the living and growing new coral.
http://www.marinedepot.com/calcium_reactors__index-ap.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_reactor
CO2 gas is a big friend to healthy reef ecosystems…
So they released fish that had lived in the safety of a laboratory fish tank into the wild and wonder why most of them got eaten because didn’t recognize predators.
Did they do a study on how many young Nemo’s are actually born stupid and never make it to maturity?
Wow – did any of you people actually read the paper before commenting?
So – scientists do a study, publish the results, and the best you can come up with is to call them fruit loops and space cadets or to quote from the bible without ever having laid eyes on what they have written.
Here’s a hint people – before opening your mouth or putting fingers to keyboard, go away and read the thing that you are about to comment on. That way you might be able to claim a modicum of credibility (it also helps to have a science education as well – and no, graduating high school does not count).
REPLY: Your sort of comment also suffers from foot in mouth disease. Look here and tell me where the full paper is? http://www.pnas.org/site/misc/highlights.shtml#fish
That’s the preview at PNAS. The full paper isn’t there, its behind a paywall The press release doesn’t have a link to the full paper either, http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/news/JCUPRD1_058449
They journal system leaves the public out in the cold, unless the public is willing to pay twice for the publicly funded work.
-A
You should know, when people use the words “climate change” without pre-qualifying those words by putting the words “Man-Made” before those words just like QE2 did, those people are just trying to trick people with word games.
Is there a secret competition amongst AGW types in which they publish increasingly bizarre articles and publications just to see what the public will swallow?
You sound like an idiot, just like the Queen of England at the UN, when you say the words “Climate Change” when you really mean “Man-Made Climate Change”. Those are two completely different concepts. Climate Change has been happening for millions of years and nobody can stop it, period.
The sad thing about these psuedo science mumbo jumbo excersises is that they deny funding to real scientists trying to do real research, money is flowing in the wrong direction entirely.
This is setting back science and preventing it from creating the ideas the we need to survive and thrive, the very last thing the above ramblings represent is scientific endeavour, it represents a modern desire to grab funding for some people to go scuba diving in great locations on someone elses dime.
You have clown scientists investigating clown fish funded by clown politicians, what exactly is the correct term for a group of clowns?
No, that is not correct, Nemo is in danger because of spam, this study says so…
http://woorkup.com/2010/07/07/the-cost-of-spam-c02-emissions/
This is very serious subject. It obviously needs some big grants for further long term study over the next decade or two.
So you raise the larvae in artificially low alkaline water for 4 days, then put them in normal seawater and their senses get screwed up – boy that’s a surprise.
It isn’t the lower pH that is the problem, it is the change. Doesn’t anyone do real science anymore?
mandas says:
July 8, 2010 at 12:24 am
Wow – did any of you people actually read the paper before commenting?
Mandas, many of us have indeed read it, and many of us are completely jaded by the torrent of alarmist BS put out by “scientists” these days. When tax-funded “scientists” are all saying that everything about this natural gas is dangerous in every way (runaway high temps, record snowfall, sea acidification, extinctions, kamikaze clown fish) when we know there is nothing unprecedented about these levels, it just makes me want to puke each time I read this crap. I mean, how did poor Gaiya survive this long? And ok, so they’re not actually saying the CO2 levels are unprecedented, but rather the “rate of increase” is unprecedented – but still there is no real world evidence to suggest that the current “rate of increase” is in itself dangerous.
“Without drastic action to cut emissions, all we can do is hope that fish will be able to adapt,” Mr Jones said.
“Drastic action” my arse. What the aptly named Prof (Geoffrey) Jones is saying is, we need to go back to living in the stone age, or else the end is nigh (at least for Nemo).
Professor Geoffrey Jones, also of JCU and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said the research took the level of concern about the effects of climate change on coral reef fish “to a whole new level”.
A whole new level! It seems “worse than we thought!” is sooo last year! It’s now taken to “a whole new level!” Somebody give the professor a valium, he needs it.
Bulldust (July 8, 2010 at 12:37 am)-based on the “Croc” below… I think you might be on to something.
“Crocodiles dive less in warmer waters”
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/07/07/2945955.htm
Please, please, please, always, always, always, prefix the term Climate Change with the word “Anthropogenic”, it sounds far more scientificky & technical & clever than boring old Climate Change! Back to sleep. BTW the way its been very warm in June & July in the UK, must be man-made global warming! What’s it like in the Colonies in your Summer/woops Northern Hemisphere Global Warming period?
I wonder what kind of acid these fish were being fed (or the researchers for that matter).” One for me, one for you…..
Did they report exactly how the pH of the seawater changed when they got to 850 ppm?
My understanding is that seawater is currently a weak alkali (pH 7.5ish to 8ish). It’ll take a heck of a lot to change it to an acid (pH<7.0) as claimed in the article.
I am always deeply suspicious of the motives of those who discuss 'ocean acidification'. I suspect that they are deliberately trying to generate images of Brighton Beach being lapped by waves of fuming concentrated nitric acid or of the White Cliffs of Dover fizzing away as 'aqua regia' in the English Channel eats through the base and our proud national symbol collapses ingloriously into the sea. No bluebirds there any more – they all fell from the sky to the corrosive once-upon-a time briny hoggin.
Which is of course total hogwash.
It is stretching the English a language a very long way to claim that by making the sea an even weaker alkali, somehow this is contributing to a dangerous and terrifying acidification.
And for 'scientists' to do so merely illustrates how far they have come from their supposed role as impartial seekers after the truth of the way nature works to advocates of a particular world view. Shame on them.
'Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled'.
Richard P Feynman, Nobel Prize Winner – and a true Scientist.