Pollution and chemical imbalances in water could have an adverse effect on animal behavior, particularly in fish that make their home among the mangrove trees along the Florida coast.
Pollution and chemical imbalances in water could have an adverse effect on animal behavior, particularly in fish that make their home among the mangrove trees along the Florida coast. Dr. Ryan Earley and his students are charting multiple courses to determine what causes changes in how the fish function.
“Our research program has a bunch of different prongs to it,” said Earley, an associate professor in The University of Alabama’s Department of Biological Sciences. “I would say the biggest prong is asking questions about how pollutants infiltrate the environment, especially aquatic ecosystems, and then have damaging effects on the individuals who live there.”
One species of fish in particular caught Earley’s attention. Mangrove rivulus, sometimes referred to as mangrove killifish, live in the waters surrounding their namesake trees, which stretch from the Tampa area to the Florida Keys. They are small fish, and their color ranges between speckled gray and dark brown. What makes them particularly unique, though, is how they reproduce.
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Image via University of Alabama.
