Some fish tackle ocean global warming by pretending it's night
The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 2016.
Some fish may cope with the changing chemistry of the oceans linked to global warming by permanently setting their body defences to night-time levels, the time of day when they find seawater least hospitable, a study says. Read the full story in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Full moon (Image: Full Moon - Creative Commons by gnuckx at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Full_Moon_-_Creative_Commons_by_gnuckx.jpg)
Man-made carbon dioxide, released into the air by burning fossil fuels, forms a weak acid when mixed with water that can harm marine life in what is likely to be a worsening effect of global warming this century.
Fish adjust their bodies every day because levels of carbon dioxide naturally in the seas peak at night and dip during sunlight hours when algae, seaweed and other plants absorb carbon dioxide to generate energy.
The study of spiny damselfish, a small species from Australia's Great Barrier Reef, found that those best able to tackle high carbon levels in the water produced offspring with flexible body clocks that helped adapt to acidification.
"It seems the tolerant offspring may have adjusted their circadian clocks as if it was always night," Timothy Ravasi, one of the authors at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, wrote of the findings published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Continue reading the full story at The Sydney Morning Herald.
