Baby fish lose poisonous protectors in acidified oceans
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news85942.html[font face=Serif][font size=5]Baby fish lose poisonous protectors in acidified oceans[/font]
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
[font size=3]A common close partnership which sees baby fish sheltering from predators among the poisonous tentacles of jellyfish will be harmed under predicted ocean acidification, a new University of Adelaide study has found.
Published today in the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers say that modification of this baby fish-jellyfish symbiotic relationship is likely to lead to higher mortality among the affected fish species which include some of the common commercial fish. A well-known example of marine symbiosis is the relationship between anemones and clown-fish, popularised in the animated movie, Finding Nemo.
These intricate, interdependent relationships between different species─symbioses─are common in both the marine and terrestrial environments, says study leader Associate Professor Ivan Nagelkerken, in the University of Adelaides Environment Institute.
But, apart from the well-known relationship between coral and microalgae and what happens during a bleaching event, little is known about how climate change and predicted ocean acidification will affect such relationships.
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