UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
Researchers from the University of Adelaide have found that the way fish interact in groups is being upset by ocean acidification and global warming.
“Fish show gregarious behaviour and cluster in shoals which helps them to acquire food and for protection against predators,” said project leader Professor Ivan Nagelkerken from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories.
“Many gregarious tropical species are shifting poleward under current ocean warming and interacting in new ways with fish in more temperate areas.”
Under controlled laboratory conditions the researchers evaluated how species interacted and behaved in new ways with changing temperature and acidification.
The rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is driving up ocean surface temperatures and causing ocean acidification. Although warming and acidification are different phenomena, they interact to the detriment of marine ecosystems.
“We found that tropical and temperate fish species tend to move to the right when coordinating together in a shoal especially when spooked by a predator, but this bias significantly diminished under ocean acidification,” said University of Adelaide PhD student Angus Mitchell who performed the experiments.
“Mixed shoals of tropical and temperate species became less cohesive under future climate conditions and showed slower escape responses from potential threats.”
Professor David Booth from the University of Technology, Sydney collaborated on the study.
“Our findings highlight the direct effect of climate stressors on fish behaviour and the interplay with the indirect effects of new species interactions,” he said.
The team of researchers published their findings in the journal Global Change Biology.
“Strong shoal cohesion and coordinated movement affect the survival of a species: whether to acquire food or evade predators,” said Professor Nagelkerken.
“If the ability for fish to work together is detrimentally affected it could determine the survival of particular species in the oceans of the future. Tropical species may initially fare poorly when moving into new temperate areas.”
JOURNAL
Global Change Biology
DOI
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Animals
ARTICLE TITLE
Ocean warming and acidification degrade shoaling performance and lateralization of novel tropical–temperate fish shoals
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
17-Dec-2021
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Maybe the fish were American tourist fish who didn’t know the Aussie rules of driving. News flash to the authors: fish navigate in 3 dimensions.
All my years of diving among reef fish has demonstrated that when presented with a potential predator the shoals of schooling fish will divert left, or right, or both left and right, or left right and up and down too!
“Under controlled laboratory conditions” says it all. It would take an extremely large tank and lots of environmental controls to mimic fish schools in the ocean.
Orbs, big brass ones.
The ocean is a basic, infinitely buffered solution which can never become acidic and it is impossible for the atmosphere to heat the ocean.
This article has been peer reviewed. That must mean that any peers accepting these assumptions make those peers idiots too.
“We found that tropical and temperate fish species tend to move to the right…”
Of course that is bad for liberals.
Hold on broiling fishies as the ice cavalry are coming are coming to the rescue-
The ‘doomsday’ glacier is on the brink of collapse (msn.com)
According to the news release, “The rising oncentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is driving up ocean surface temperatures and causing ocean acidification. Although warming and acidification are different phenomena, they interact to the detriment of marine ecosystems.”
And according to NOAA, “Because of human-driven increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there is more CO2 dissolving into the ocean. The ocean’s average pH is now around 8.1, which is basic (or alkaline), but as the ocean continues to absorb more CO2, the pH decreases and the ocean becomes more acidic.”
One question that has arisen for me is, if warming ocean water releases carbon dioxide because it is less able to hold CO2 in solution as it warms (which we know is true), then how do warming oceans increase in acidification because more CO2 dissolves into the ocean?
Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for this, but it seems on the face of it to defy logic. I hope that some of the truly knowledgeable folks here can address this.
There is an equilibrium between the CO2 concentration in the seawater and that in the atmosphere. This equilibrium is sensitive to temperature so if the seawater temperature increases then the ratio of the atmospheric CO2/seawaterCO2 will increase. However if the atmospheric concentration is increased due to other means (combustion) then it’s possible for the ocean to continue absorbing O2 regardless of temperature.
I wonder if an idea I have for carbon capture would work, not that it’s really needed but in order that climate alarmists can stop soiling themselves. The solubility of CO2 varying with temp has been mentioned here many times, also that the bottom of the oceans is very cold, close to 0°C. So what if you ran a pipeline from big emitters of CO2 to the bottom of the oceans, pumping out the CO2 down there, thinnly spread out so the CO2 is likely to be absorbed by the time it floats to the surface.
Of course – makes sense! Thank you for your reply, which dusted off some of my brain cobwebs and reminded me of some basic college chemistry principles.
The ocean holds a 1000 times as much heat as the atmosphere
So I still don’t grasp alarmist science that says GHE in the atmosphere of 1 degree can raise the ocean temp by 1 degree?
Maybe in a couple thousand years. But in a few decades?
And
Is this acidification and temperature why the Russians teach their pilots to break left when the rest of the world breaks right if faced with imminent collision?
Maybe Putin needs to talk to the fish