From Nature.com, is there anything trace amounts of CO2 can’t do? As if clownfish (the test subject) don’t already act funny.
The New Scientist says:
Carbon dioxide in the ocean acts like alcohol on fish, leaving them less able to judge risks and prone to losing their senses. The intoxication adds to the threats that global warming and ocean acidification pose to marine ecosystems.
Here’s the paper in Nature Climate Change:
Near-future carbon dioxide levels alter fish behaviour by interfering with neurotransmitter function
Göran E. Nilsson, Danielle L. Dixson, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. McCormick, Christina Sørensen, Sue-Ann Watson & Philip L. Munday
Nature Climate Change (2012) doi:10.1038/nclimate1352
Received 18 August 2011, Accepted 29 November 2011, Published online 15 January 2012
Abstract:
Predicted future CO2 levels have been found to alter sensory responses and behaviour of marine fishes. Changes include increased boldness and activity, loss of behavioural lateralization, altered auditory preferences and impaired olfactory function1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Impaired olfactory function makes larval fish attracted to odours they normally avoid, including ones from predators and unfavourable habitats1, 3. These behavioural alterations have significant effects on mortality that may have far-reaching implications for population replenishment, community structure and ecosystem function2, 6. However, the underlying mechanism linking high CO2 to these diverse responses has been unknown. Here we show that abnormal olfactory preferences and loss of behavioural lateralization exhibited by two species of larval coral reef fish exposed to high CO2 can be rapidly and effectively reversed by treatment with an antagonist of the GABA-A receptor. GABA-A is a major neurotransmitter receptor in the vertebrate brain. Thus, our results indicate that high CO2 interferes with neurotransmitter function, a hitherto unrecognized threat to marine populations and ecosystems. Given the ubiquity and conserved function of GABA-A receptors, we predict that rising CO2 levels could cause sensory and behavioural impairment in a wide range of marine species, especially those that tightly control their acid–base balance through regulatory changes in HCO3− and Cl− levels.
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The Daily Bayonet sums up this research pretty well:
That researchers chose the colorful and movie-famous clownfish as the subject for their study instead of the toadfish or other, less photogenic, aquatic reef dwellers, has nothing to do with winning headlines and funding. Probably.
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eyesonu says:
January 17, 2012 at 7:16 pm
“Next time I go trout fishing I’ll take along a bottle of CO2 and get the trout drunk enough to ‘trust me’. Maybe I can even convince them that I only want to take them out for dinner.
I can’t wait until warm weather when the suckers run.”
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Richard Brautigan beat you to it.
The proper experiment would have been to start with today’s CO2 level and increase it to 2100’s ‘expected’ CO2 level but over a period of 88 years so that acclimatisation can be included.
This research confirms something I suggested here a while back.
That people like Hansen et al will eventually blame the high levels of CO2 for their junk science. As it is described here, It made them “prone to losing their senses.”
High levels of CO2 also make all data collection instruments faulty, so they had to adjust them.
CO2 causes everything.
Clownfish. Team climate scientists. And the difference is…. ? That clownfish are highly successful survivors who will be with us for a long time yet while Team climastrologists aren’t..
Because greater availability of CO2 in sea water could not possibly be counterbalanced by greater photosynthetic activity turning it into molecular oxygen. And these clowns call themselves biologists.
DesertYote is right on the money with his comment. Percula clownfish are commonly kept in reef aquariums, where it’s common to keep CO2 levels elevated to feed the symbiotic algae in the coral polyps and to encourage coral growth. Most aquarists don’t keep larval fish. But clownfishes are extensively bred in captivity at commercial fisheries. It would be interesting to have commercial fish breeders, who know what they are doing and who know a lot about normal and abnormal behaviours of fish, to confirm these results.
Meanwhile the lizards are laughing, they get the joke now.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/warm-climate-helps-lizards-scale-new-heights-of-intelligence-20120113-1pzeb.html
Hey Clownfish – don’t hold yer breath (so to speak).
Every time these goofballs promise us something based on what CO2 supposedly will do – IT NEVER HAPPENS.
The increase in CO2 will require many generations of clownfish. The populations should be able to adapt in the usual way — in each generation, the least adapted will die at the highest rates. Meanwhile, all their predator and food source populations will be adapting in the same way. These people (non-identfied) keep forgetting that they believe in evolution via random variation and natural selection.
Not to worry, they may be wiped out before they succumb to CO2.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2008/07/demand-for-nemo.html
It was the wee hours when Mr. Clownfish finally stumbled through the door. Just when he thought he might make it to his bed… the lights blazed on and he heard the unpleasant screech of Mrs. Clownfish “How dare you come home, at this hour, stinking of soda!” she screamed. “You have been down to the reef again, sopping up CO2 haven’t you?!” Mr. Clownfish weaved a little and looked down at his puke stained shoes and timidly nodded. Suddenly, the orange color drained from Mrs. Clownfish’s contorted face and she sceamed “Is that guppy slime on your collar?!” Mr Clownfish felt too ashamed to answer and then she sobbed “How could you? Think of the children” she cried. It was at that moment Mr. Clownfish realized that life was over as he knew it. “Damn that blasted CO2” he moaned. “Why doesn’t someone ban it?” was his only response. GK
CO2 is amazing stuff. On a current affairs program recently here in Australia, CO2 can cause drivers to fall asleep and crash while driving a car. I had to laugh.
Huffing CO2….hmm, that might explain the Climategate emails.
They should consider themselves lucky that the missing heat sneaks through their environment without a trace on its way down to the bottom of the ocean.
Weren’t the oceans supposed to give up their CO2 as the temperature rose?
Hmmmm, has the odor of Mannian statistics
Paging….. Mr. Vigilantfish…..
Makes you wonder how the fish ever manage to eat: Metabolizing food produces lots of carbon dioxide which is excreted, errr…., into the ocean.
jorgekafkazar says:
January 17, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Clownfish. Well, let’s see somebody else repeat the study and see if the same results are obtained. WUWT had info on another study:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/04/co2-deafens-nemo-or-how-many-ichthyologists-can-you-fit-in-that-car/
It appears the warmists have given up on polar bears as their poster child. Somebody must have tipped them off that polar bears eat baby seals…
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There was also this one
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/07/now-its-co2-killing-nemo/
It may be time to resurrect a strategy I suggested quite a while back. It involved an organized effort to report the purveyors of this terrorizing propaganda to local Child Services agencies across the country as serial child abusers. Reports of children needing to undergo therapy as a consequence of all the doom mongering they are exposed to have been ever more frequent over recent years and, given the shoddy basis of most this nonsense, the continued targeting of the most vulnerable clearly constitutes child abuse in my book.
Sorry to say it folks but the concept has face validity. Much however would depend on the ability of the clownfish to maintain homoeostasis in a lower pH environment or to upregulate/downregulate GABA and allied receptor systems. A human who cannot maintain a pH within the normal range of 7.35 to 7.45 becomes quite unwell. Usually the problem is acidosis (ie, a lower than normal pH) with decidedly adverse effects on the central nervous system include anxiety, irritability, and sometimes delirium and confusion. A human with a pH of 7.0 (ie, chemically neutral) can be very sick. So as with humans, so too with fish.
The real clowns were wearing white lab coats.
Now that the warmists have lost the scientific argument on AGW and all its variant acronyms, they need another bogeyman to try to keep alive their hopes, cushy jobs, incomes, investments in green technologies, carbon credits and ploitical credibility. Ocean acidification, which is not happening since at worst what we may remotely have is reduced alkalinity is now being banded about, reported in the main stream media instead of global warming to try to scare us into subission. Hence the Hollywoodian clownfish.
Land-based life has already seen a rise in atmospheric CO2 of about 140ppmv during the past decades; from approx 250 to 390 ppmv. Did we humans have experienced any effect on our bodies? I have never seen any report that says so. Not even on smallest of vertebrates. Not on insects, microbial life or any type of terrestrial life.
This steady increase in atmospheric CO2 should impact on the oceans, according to Henry’s law, by increasing the dissolved CO2 according to this law. However, since global warming also heats the oceans, then CO2 is released from the oceans at these higher temperatures. Meanwhile, the oceans contain 50 times the CO2 in the atmosphere, which could mean that global warming releases more CO2 than is dissolved when the planet heats up due to increased atmospheric CO2. However we are not even sure if increasing atmospheric CO2 causes global warming or the other way round, that global warming causes release of CO2 from the oceans.
I an scientifically convinced that the clown-fish species will outlive the AGW theorist species.
…..the clown fish gets clownier….. enhancing his performance…..whats wrong with it?
Well, if the sea cucumber would get clowny that would be different….
The skeptic is alive and well in me but my inquiring mind needs satiating. I know the Clown fish will be here long after we humans have gone.
Can one of the great commentator’s or Anthony help with my question.
I’m sure a lot of readers may have had the same questions?
In the pre-Industrial times the atmosphere contained 260 parts / million of CO2
Present day = 2012 the atmosphere contained 390 parts / million of CO2
The Clown fish report indicates: The pair reared clown fish (Amphiprion percula) larvae in seawater with normal (450 microatmospheres) and elevated (900 microatmospheres) CO2 levels.
Here is my question: Using the reasoning and calculations of the Researchers from the Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University
1. When the the atmosphere contained 260 parts / million of CO2 (pCO2) how many microatmospheres would have been present or measured on the ocean?
2. The Researchers indicated: Seawater with NORMAL 450 microatmospheres would that be at 260 parts / million of CO2 in the atmosphere OR the present day atmosphere readings contained 390 parts / million of CO2. What did they consider a normal CO2 atmospheric level as there baseline?
3. The Researchers indicated: Seawater with ELEVATED 900 microatmospheres CO2 levels. What would the atmosphere CO2 parts / million be to achieve this level in the ocean?
4. How does one calculate OR cross relate microatmospheres CO2 in relation to atmospheric CO2 parts/ million.
Thanks for the help.
Dave.
I’m glad to see the black header image. WUWT is on their list.