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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@ur momisugly Dave re microatmosphere
Good questions Dave and I await a more knowedgeable responce than mine, but in the meantime….
I think the 450 microatmosphere value relates to present day atmosphiric concentrations of ~390ppm and the 900 would be an approximate doubling of the atmospheric concentration.
I found this that might be usefull (I need to read it again! I think all the co2 in my beer is making me a bit fuzzy.), http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/ndp047/ndp047.txt
Rich
Dave,
I don’t have access paywalled articles, but here is one that touches on the subject.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/158/m158p061.pdf
If you look on the web for the article (Nature) the supplementary information names a program used to calculate CO2 levels. I can’t speak to it’s validity.
I have read criticisms elsewhere that the pH measurement scale (pHNBS) they use is far from ideal for seawater because of large disparities in ionic strength.
Myself, I would also have asked to see full dose-response curves for both CO2 levels and the drug (gabazine) that they administer. Standard practice. They chose a dose of ~5mg/litre simply on the basis that ~5mg/kg is tolerated im mammals!
I’d doubt that CO2 would be anywhere near as hazardous as this improbable compound, neon molybdenide (NeMo), which directly targets the poor suckers.
“we predict that rising CO2 levels could cause sensory and behavioural impairment”
“could”??????
Wow, if only I could find a bookie who pays out on such ‘results’.
I predict that consumption of lentils could cause it to rain pianos. Thus we need to cut down on eating lentils!
Increase p[CO2] and you increase pH, so they adjust two variables and admit only one.
Go figure…..
No, occifer, i’d not bin drinkin (hic), damn evelated carbon diosified ….. dioxified …… dioxidied levels (hic) have interfered with my neurotransmitter funkshuuuun (hic)
Whoa. What happened? I just had a 24 hour blackout!
Must have had too much CO2 last night.
Mike Bromley the Canucklehead says:
January 17, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Mike, you got it in one, Nemo…er, Clownfish.
Panic the children.
Ah! Now I understand why and how the British Empire vanished. They started drinking foreign lagers full of CO2.
“Predicted future CO2 levels have been found to alter sensory responses and behaviour of marine fishes.”
It would be quite extraordinary indeed, in fact, unprecedented, if “future” CO2 levels have already been found to alter anything–sensory, behavior, or otherwise. How exactly does that work? Backwards causality? Time reversal? Wow! What a discovery if true!
Fortunately, they are not talking about “future CO2 levels,” but rather, “PREDICTED future CO2 levels.” So if there’s a problem, the solution is easy: simply quite “PREDICTING” future CO2 levels!
Oops! That should be: “quit” not “quite”
I especially don’t buy this because a lot of marine aquarium keepers have CO2 reactors on their tanks to increase the CO2 concentration to stimulate photosynthesis. They usually then compensate the pH by adding CaCO3 (which they do anyways, to maintain pH between water changes).
But I think the critique included as a part of the article is off. I have a mated pair of ocellaris clowns in my tank that were purchased in 2000 and began breeding in late 2001. They have large broods (this is a study of larval fish, remember), the young are relatively easy to raise, and to the very best of my knowledge they have not missed a single bi-weekly breeding cycle in that entire period of now more than a decade. Though they probably missed when we moved the tanks from Charlottesville to Northern Virginia. That’s why clowns are used, not for the photogenic benefits.
I really don’t know why they bothered with their fancy-nancy clown fish experiment.
It seems perfectly self-evident that even small increases in atmospheric CO2 have a powerful hallucinogenic effect on a significant proportion of the population of human beings.
Surely it follows that there will be similar effects on other species ???
The big issue I see is that brains adjust their neurotransmitter levels over time. SO how FAST did they wiggle the CO2 levels? Just as heavy drinkers become habituated to booze and it takes a quart of whiskey to feel anything, and just as regular smokers need a daily smoke to feel normal, etc. So who’s to say they are not just measuring the response time of the adaptive mechanism?
IIRC, submariners can go to much higher levels of CO2 if the onset is slow.
Increased CO2 causes drunken clownfish.
Hope someone took their car keys.
2.
Deaf and now drunk fish. Oh no! How will they ever feed?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13417-global-warming-poses-deaf-threat-to-tropical-fish.html
Have these researchers considered that the fish may adapt, evolve? Thank God past co2 levels of 4,000 ppm didn’t wipe out all our seafood. ;>)
People keep fish in aquariums indoors and I don’t think they observed the poor fish being dizzy. Improperly ventilated rooms can get over 1000 ppm CO2. A well ventilated room is like 600 ppm, a typical value is 800 ppm. Oceans and seas tend to stay outdoor, so CO2 is lower than that. Now there will be a while until CO2 will increase outside to 1000 ppm, and I think it won’t be exactly the same thing as increasing the CO2 suddenly as they did for the poor fish.
Increasingly acid water? Somebody please tell those pseudoscientists that pH of 8 is above 7, and only below it’s acidic, above 7 is basic.
All I know is that Clown Fish LOVE snails. Have an aquarium overrun with snails, put in some clown fish, no more problem as they just flip them over and dine. Pretty fish to watch too.
from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21355-carbon-dioxide-encourages-risky-behaviour-in-clownfish.html
“When they reached adulthood, the fish were given a choice between a water stream containing the odour of common predators such as the rock cod (Cephalopholis cyanostigma) or a stream lacking predatory odours. Those reared in high levels of CO2 swam towards rock cod’s scent around 90 per cent of the time, whereas those that had enjoyed normal levels of CO2 avoided the predator’s scent more than 90 per cent of the time.”
The control fish avoided the predators 90% of the time. It would have been significant if the exposed fish had only avoided the predators 50% of the time. That would have indicated no judgement was left in their intoxicated little brains. But the newscientist article claims they were attracted to predators 90% of the time. Not 40, 50, 60, or 70 percent of the time but a complete reversal from +90% to -90%. Isn’t that an amazing coincidence.
Luther Wu says:
January 17, 2012 at 7:43 pm
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.”
____________________________________
Richard Brautigan beat you to it.
==========================
Did Brautigan get the trout drunk or did he convince them he only wanted to take them out for dinner?
Or, did he stand happily in the water and get the suckers drunk?
Or, did he refer to the ‘suckers’ running for political office who were outed for supporting such nonsense in so-called science?
Or, did he refer to the political operatives running for cover after having such nonsense being revealed to the world by WUWT?
Joachim Seifert says:
January 18, 2012 at 10:07 am
…..the clown fish gets clownier….. enhancing his performance…..whats wrong with it?
Well, if the sea cucumber would get clowny that would be different….
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An enhanced performance see cucumber spewing all over the corals and acting rather clownish ….. ?
Richard Keen says:
January 18, 2012 at 9:18 pm
I’d doubt that CO2 would be anywhere near as hazardous as this improbable compound, neon molybdenide (NeMo), which directly targets the poor suckers.
===================
Is neon molybdenide (NeMo) a date rape drug?
Do these ‘clowns’ doing research come up with such sh*t just to amuse us and be the light of our jokes are are they serious?
**HIC**
You know, Nemo, **HIC** I never loved your mother.
Sounds like Thanksgiving at my house. 🙂