Climate pollution continues affecting humans and animals, each in a different way, with one thing in common: It affects them negatively. A study by Royal Society B, a journal focusing on biological discoveries, published findings on the 26th of July, revealed that climate pollution is causing behavioral changes among fish, and even leading to reshaping the sex lives of one kind of fish.
Studies were mostly done in the floor of Mediterranean Sea near Sicily, and they revealed that changes to fish mating behaviors could exacerbate stresses on entire ocean ecosystems, which are already being pummeled by over-fishing, warming waters and plastic and oil pollution.
Climate Central mentioned that “about a quarter of industrial carbon dioxide pollution is entering the seas, and scientists have warned that could cause pH levels to decline by 2100 to levels not experienced for more than 50 millions years”.
“For the first time in the wild, we showed fish species with complex reproductive behaviors to be affected by high carbon dioxide levels expected by this century’s end,” said University of Palermo marine biologist Marco Milazzo, who led the new research into wrasses’ mating behavior.
Milazzo was part of an international team of scientists that used video cameras and genetic analysis to study the breeding of the wrasse in the Mediterranean Sea. The group compared breeding at nests built close to carbon dioxide-belching volcanic vents off the Italian island of Sicily with those about 100 miles away.
Challenges of studying seafloor fish behavior meant that just a few dozen nests were studied over two years.
Industrial pollution changes the way fish mate
When the scientists monitored breeding behaviors near volcanic seeps, which roughly simulated ocean conditions anticipated by the end of the century, they noticed some differences.
In the nests that were built near volcanic vents, where the water contained higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, the underwater videos revealed that dominant males mated less frequently. Despite mating less often, genetic analysis appeared to show these dominant males sired more of the young growing in eggs that they protected (though the small number of nests studied meant that difference was statistically minor).
When it comes to the scientists’ interests in the wrasses, what matters to them is the indication that industrial pollution is capable of changing the way fish mate.
“Most fish have got these complicated ways of getting it on, and how they find each other, for example, is complex,” said Jason Hall-Spencer, a Plymouth University professor who helped produce this week’s paper.
“If we’re affecting the chemistry of how fish meet each other and have fish, that’s important for their populations,” Hall-Spencer said. “We’ve shown that can happen.”
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