Researchers found that when water temperatures heat up for corals, fish ‘tempers’ cool down, providing the first clear evidence of coral bleaching serving as a trigger for rapid change in reef fish behaviour.
Researchers found that when water temperatures heat up for corals, fish ‘tempers’ cool down, providing the first clear evidence of coral bleaching serving as a trigger for rapid change in reef fish behaviour.
Publishing in Nature Climate Change this week, researchers from Lancaster University and collaborating institutes including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE), show how the iconic butterflyfish, considered to be sensitive indicators of reef health, can offer an early warning sign that reef fish populations are in trouble.
The international team of researchers spent more than 600 hours underwater observing butterflyfish over a two-year period encompassing the unprecedented mass coral bleaching event of 2016. Led by Dr. Sally Keith of Lancaster University, previously Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, the team examined 17 reefs across the central Indo-Pacific in Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Christmas Island (Indian Ocean).
During the initial data collection, the researchers were unaware that the catastrophic bleaching event was on the horizon. Once underway, the researchers realised that this serendipitous ‘natural experiment’ placed them in a unique position to see how fish changed their behaviour in response to large-scale bleaching disturbance.
Read more at Lancaster University
Image: Dr. Sally- Underwater sampling. CREDIT: Dr. Erika Woolsey
