Humans cannot reduce from the threat of climate change. However, clapping fish can. A new paper published today Advances in science, The team of researchers revealed that these small “Nemo” fish can actually shrink and survive heat stress, allowing them to overcome the threat of heat waves.
“I was very surprised to see these fish shrink,” said research author Melissa Verstigue, PhD. Students at Newcastle University in the UK press release. “In the end, we found it to be very common in this population.”
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Clowfish shrink in size
Clown anemone fish. (Image credit: Morgan Bennett-Smith)
Climate change changes terrestrial and marine habitats, and heat waves (or periods of extraordinary warmth) have one of the most important effects on animals, and continues to change them. For example, it has been shown that temperature rises have a strong influence on the dimensions of terrestrial and marine species, forming size and size variability, and contributes to overall size reduction over time.
However, to be precise, the effect of marine heat waves on macrofish is also known as clown anemone fish (Amphiphrion Percula)?
Starting off to study how heat waves transform these fish over time, Versteeg and his team of researchers turned to a population of wild fish fish in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. The team measuring water temperature and sizes from February 2023 to August 2023 found that individual Clownfish were shrinking over time.
“We repeatedly measured individuals in each fish over five months,” Versteeg said in the release. “During our research, 100 fish shrunk from the 134 fish we studied.”
These clownfish shrink when they become shorter and shrink when they shrink according to the individual’s initial size and social rank. Researchers reveal that Clownfish reduces the size in response to heat stress, increasing the likelihood that it will survive a heat wave by 78%.
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Improves Clownfish survival
Researchers say some clownfish have shrunk once, some fish have shrunk multiple times, and all fish that have shrunk multiple times during the course of the study have shrunk. Interestingly, Clownfish’s survival potential was also improved if it was reduced with its breeding partner.
“We witnessed how flexible they adjusted their size as individuals and as breeding pairs in response to heat stress as a successful technique for survival,” Versteeg said in the release. “It was a surprise to see how quickly Clownfish can adapt to a changing environment.”
Similar reduction capabilities are seen in other animals, including marine iguanas. And Clownfish is the first reef fish that researchers have shown to shorten it in response to heat stress, but they may not be the last. In fact, the results can affect other reef fish and all other fish.
Researchers say the fish are generally much smaller than they once were. Research in 2023 Science For example, we found that fish especially promote a decrease in the size of global animal populations. One possible explanation for this is that smaller species of fish survive with larger species of fish. The other is that fish species of all sizes are shrinking over time, with each and every small individual surviving (and thus reproductive) than each other larger individual.
However, there are other factors that make today’s fish smaller, such as the ability to reduce size during stress.
“If individual shrinkage is widespread and occurs between different species of fish, it could provide a plausible alternative hypothesis as to why many fish species are declining,” said Teresa Luger, a lecturer at Newcastle University. “More research is needed in this field.”
The fish themselves are smaller and smaller, but researchers say their results raise more specific questions about animal size and animal reduction. “We still don’t know exactly how they do that,” Versteeg said. “But we know that some other animals can do this.”
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Sam Walters is a journalist covering evolution for archaeology, paleontology, ecology and discovery, and has an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
