The study shows that reef fish lose the ability to make good decisions and are more likely to get into unnecessary fights.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has experienced the fourth mass bleaching event in just six years – less than a year since then, and scientists fear that sudden climate change could completely destroy the world’s largest reef system, the Daily Mail reported.
For decades, scientists have warned that the consequences of global warming will be catastrophic for all life on Earth – a new study shows the Great Barrier Reef and its inhabitants are also at risk.
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The researchers suggest that reef fish may be on the verge of extinction – another major coral bleaching is to blame. Scientists have discovered that some residents of the Great Barrier Reef are finding it increasingly difficult to identify competitors, making more and more wrong decisions, which leads to more and more unnecessary conflict. All this consumes their energy and can eventually lead to the death of the fish.
The study’s lead author, Dr Sally Keith, a senior lecturer in biology at Lancaster, says the ability to recognize competitors is key for individual fish. By doing this, they can decide whether to enter the competition, saving valuable energy and avoiding unnecessary injuries.
These rules were developed for a specific habitat that has unfortunately changed due to repeated violations, including bleaching of corals, a change in their abundance and identity. In turn, corals are a food source for butterflyfish, who may not be able to change their “rulebook” drastically enough to reconsider their decision.
The researchers suggest that this inability to adapt could lead to the extinction of some fish, and that further global warming will only accelerate this process.
During the study, scientists conducted more than 3.5 thousand observations of 38 species of butterflyfish on reefs in 5 regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. After the corals were bleached en masse, the scientists tracked changes in the fish’s behavior.
Remember that during the bleaching process, corals expel the algae that live in them due to stress – they are what give them color and life. Corals are known to heal quite well over time, but only under certain conditions.
After analyzing the observational data, Dr. Keith and colleagues found that conflicts between representatives of different species occurred in 72% of cases before the major coral bleaching and resulted in chases, which increased to 90% afterward.
Scientists also found that not only the number of interspecies chases increased, but also their duration – as a result, fish spend more energy than before to confront competitors. The researchers suggest that this is due to the death of corals, forcing reef fish to change their behavior and seek additional food sources to develop new territories. All this causes the fish to behave differently and unfortunately they do not always act in their own interests.
In addition, scientists have found that as a result of these conflicts, the relationships that had been established for thousands of years and that allowed different species to coexist on the same land were destroyed.
Keith said the most striking thing is that the behavior of reef fish changes the same way in different places, which means that scientists can now predict how ecological communities will change in the future if the ocean continues to warm.
Recall that the Great Barrier Reef underwent mass bleaching in 1998, then in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022.
Previously Focus He wrote that record-breaking heat waves destroyed coral in the Great Barrier Reef almost instantly.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.