Researchers at the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (Mubadala ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi have found that reef fish from the Arabian Gulf, the world’s hottest sea, exhibit a higher tolerance to temperature fluctuations compared to those from more thermally stable coral reefs.
Researchers at the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (Mubadala ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi have found that reef fish from the Arabian Gulf, the world’s hottest sea, exhibit a higher tolerance to temperature fluctuations compared to those from more thermally stable coral reefs. However, the Arabian Gulf hosts fewer fish species overall, indicating that only certain fishes can withstand rising global temperatures.
The Arabian Gulf's highly variable thermal environment provides a natural framework for studying how reef fish might cope with a warming climate. By comparing fish from this extreme habitat to those in the milder Gulf of Oman, the research team, led by Dr Grace Vaughan, Postdoctoral Associate Daniel Ripley, and Professor of Biology John Burt, discovered that fish in the Arabian Gulf demonstrate slightly higher temperature tolerance. However, overall biodiversity is lower. This suggests that while some species can adapt to environmental variability, the difference in thermal tolerance between the two regions was minimal.
The team’s findings are detailed in the paper Narrow Margins: Aerobic Performance and Temperature Tolerance of Coral Reef Fishes Facing Extreme Thermal Variability, published in Global Change Biology.
Read more at New York University
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