Clown fish are known from the animation film “Find Nemo” – According to a current study, the striped water residents start to shrink in heat waves in the sea. Especially remarkable: Visparen are smaller together.
Due to Krimpen, the fish that live in the in -in -the -racifi coral reefs improve their chances of survival, as a research team in the specialized magazine “Science Advances” reports. How to shrink can still be found. The team around Melissa Versteeg of the University of Newcastle investigated 67 Wild Clownfish pairs from Kimbe Bay in the island state of Papua -Ginea.
The temperatures in the bay surpassed the previous average with about four degrees during the experimental period, as the researchers explain. During a heat wave of five months from February to August 2023, the length of the 134 clown fish was measured once a month.
VISPAREN Krimpen together
In the course of the five months, 100 of the 134 fish. Some shrink only once (44 percent) with a few millimeters, other several times (30 percent) – and about a quarter not at all. Ranking or gender differences could not be recognized- but a few effect. Clownfish pairs were coordinated. As a result, the size ratio remained about the same, as the team reports. The coordinated Krimpen avoids that there is more and more friction in the relationship.
A pair consists of a dominant woman and a subdominant man who is smaller than his companion. Often other colleagues who do not reproduce in the group – these subordinates are then gradually smaller.
Shrinking fish prefer to survive heat wave
Eleven of the fish taken into account before the study died during the heat phase. Compared to the non -shrinking -fish, the chance of survival of shorter concepipical to 78 percent was greater. The researchers concluded Clownfish to survive to survive heat better. This can best be done when men and women of a few become just as smaller. Conversely, there is also coordinated growth in better environmental conditions.
The metabolic speed of the animals is raised in warmer water, which, among other things, increases the oxygen requirement. At the same time, less oxygen is dissolved in warmer water, as the study says. The oxygen uptake about the gills is increasingly worse with increasing size. The need is reduced by shrinking. Food availability can also play a role.
Small fish are heavier to catch
Another hypothesis among researchers is that fish of many species are smaller, because larger specimens are more often caught by fishing vessels. This results in a selection pressure to smaller and smaller and easier sliding through the nets and thus escape: the whole species is becoming smaller in the case of highly fished species.
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
