NEWS

Monday, January 08, 2007

In Hot Water: How Climate Change is Affecting Cold Water Fish

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For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between rising sea temperatures and a declining fish population. An indicator species, the eelpout fish is the subject of a new study out of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany that indicates warmer waters are harming cold water fish.

New research combining lab tests on its [eelout fish] ability to thrive in warmer waters and these long-term records show, for the first time, how climate change might be driving the eellike fish out of its ancestral home....lab tests showed that when exposed to warmer water, the fish were unable to get as much oxygen as they needed to cope with the increased temperature. “When you say I get less oxygen in, then I have less oxygen available for aerobic energy and I have less energy for the diverse tasks that a species needs to fulfill in an ecosystem, such as being ready to prey, grow, move and reproduce,” Animal physiologist Hans Pörtner explains. “It’s a general weakening of the individual once it is going beyond its thermal limitation.”

Read the full article in the New Scientist, on January 5, 2007

Read the full article in Scientific Amercian on January 4, 2007

Read the full article in Nature, on January 4, 2007